Held twice a year, the Intercolor Congress is a pivotal event, gathering color and trend experts from 15 nations to a different international location every six months. A non-profit organization, Intercolor was set up to share color information internationally and across different industries. Currently there are 15 member countries, including China, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and the United States. For two days the countries meet to present and exchange color ideas. At the end of the session, they come up with an official group consensus for the season.
Representing the US is CEW, in a special collaboration with Beautystreams. Each season, CEW shares with members an exclusive look at the trend results from the Color Congresses.
Now the results are in from the most recent Color Congress in Istanbul with a forecast for Autumn-Winter 2016-2017. “Interconnectedness” emerged as the central theme of the season. Throughout the concepts presented by the member countries, multi-polarity, sharing, empathy, and duality are key. “We are witnessing the development of a society based on individual and group experiencing. There’s the rediscovery of an autonomous individual, more qualified to make decisions, an interventionist prepared to live in an era of permanent change,” said the Portuguese delegates.
From Korea, the delegates believe “in an era of digital technology, where it is impossible to tell the real from unreal, we focus on analogue and basic human senses a little more.”
The British delegates assert the importance of textural effect on color. “This season, it is impossible to view color without first considering the texture, surface or material.Color is contaminated or illuminated by the surface it is applied to.Textiles and threads are tangled, chaotic, matted and uncertain – yet unfathomable things of exquisite beauty.”
Following are some of the final Autumn-Winter 2016-2017 themes:
CONTAMINATIVE: Nature is transfigured through technology, creating a smart nature and a movement towards “re-naturation.”
Colors: Forest greens and browns, botanical yellow cold blue and neon green.
ARTITUDE: An anti-conformist manifesto of the theatrical, artistic and bizarre.
Colors: Passionate jewel tones: ruby, burgundy, dark purple, teal, mustard, navy and bright yellow.
DAILY LIFE: Taking pleasure from the simple treasures and experiences in daily life.
Colors: Tinted neutrals of mineral greens, pale yellow, light gray, soft lilac, faded heather and umber.
PAUSING: The philosophy of silence conveyed through a sense of peaceful, ghostly absence.
Colors: Sophisticated veiled neutrals – taupe, wheat, steel blue, buff and warm gray.
DISTURBING: A realm of darkness where the peculiar and macabre are mesmerizing.
Colors: Range of several faux-blacks with filmy aqua.
The Italian delegates affirmed, “now is a moment of deep reflection, in which a new consciousness flowers within us bearing the seeds of rebirth: the new being will no longer shout, but speaks with gentle voice, expressing emotions through creativity and art, opening his heart toward the future with positive curiosity.”
To access the Autumn Winter 2016-2017 Intercolor Forecast, please contact
For more information on the Intercolor organization visit: www.intercolor.nu.
