The Pantone Color of the Year 2026 is PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer, "a lofty white that serves as a symbol of calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection."
Pantone says that its Color of the Year 2026, PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer, "is a key structural colour whose versatility provides scaffolding for the colour spectrum, allowing all colours to shine."
CNN points out that the shade and its associations with billowy silhouettes and feathers has already been fairly ubiquitous on the runways this year, and there's plenty of fairly rococo language about its balance of cool and warm undertones.
For those of us that don't take our design cues from the Met Gala, though, it's still worthwhile information as it gives us a good indication of the direction some clients and gigs may be going with their color palettes over the next 12 months.
HEX #F0EEE9 and an RGB of 240, 238, 233 should get you in the right ballpark.
And, as you can see from the previous Colors of the Year for 2025 - 2019, left to right, that's quite a different ballpark, so it's worth knowing what might be coming your way, especially if you're trying to light it faithfully with LED fixtures.
It also brings us this, which is probably one of the greatest marketing tie-ins of all time and 100% genuine.