Pantone has its head in the clouds for 2026.
The Color Institute has named Cloud Dancer, a soft white, its 2026 Color of the Year (COTY).
Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, described Cloud Dancer as “a lofty white that that reads like a breath of fresh air.”
Eiseman and Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, said that this year’s COTY is meant to bring a renewed sense of simplicity and clarity.
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Pressman said Pantone placed some of its focus for this year’s COTY on the intersection of humans and technology. As technology continues to be a central topic of conversation and a larger part of everyday life, Pantone wanted to put an onus on the value of human connection.
“This is a softer white. It’s not a technical white,” Pressman said. “Cloud Dancer is a natural white whose softness gives it a more human quality, shifting the emotional tone of technology from cold efficiency to gentle clarity enabling it to serve as a bridge between human connection and continued innovation. “
With the focus on real-life connection, Pantone hopes Cloud Dancer will inspire creativity in a variety of culture-steering industries, fashion among them. The company thinks of Cloud Dancer as a “blank slate” and an “open canvas.” It’s meant to provide a structure for creatives to work off of and to combine with other colors and textures.
Pressman and Eiseman see organzas, silks and gauzes as hot fabrics to complement Cloud Dancer’s milky, soft tone.
“We would hope it would encourage continued experimentation: with materials, shapes and silhouettes, new design methods and technologies, new processes and solutions and of course experimenting with color, new colors, new combinations, new effects,” Pressman said.
When it selects its COTY, Pantone draws inspiration from a variety of sources and from the general feeling of the moment. And white has been cast in the spotlight plenty of times throughout 2025.
For instance, white hues have permeated the music world this year, making appearances in music videos and album artwork.
In PinkPantheress’s video for “Tonight,” the third track on her May album “Fancy That,” the artist dons a floor-length dress with ruffles, bows and other accoutrements, accessorized with pearls and white barrettes. The music video looks almost like a period piece, with other members of the cast sporting powdered wigs, ruffled white collars and other white pieces to accent their outfits.
Jazz pop sensation Laufey wears a voluminous, above-the-knee white dress with puff sleeves in the music video for her song “Snow White,” the third track on her August album “A Matter of Time.” The artist paired the dress with stark, knee-high black rainboots. Eiseman and Pressman said the classic black-and-white color combination’s repeated appearances in 2025 influenced Pantone’s decision; the color experts expect to see more of the pairing surfacing throughout 2026.
Other celebrities, like Rihanna and Margaret Qualley, have been spotted pairing contrast-heavy, black-and-white looks at the Council of Fashion Designers America (CFDA) Awards and the Golden Globes.
And Eiseman and Pressman themselves called out classical artist Rosalia’s symbolic uses of white for the art associated with her fourth studio album, “Lux.” The artist has been spotted at a number of events in 2025—including Christian Dior’s Paris Fashion Week show, the Met Gala, Vanity Fair’s Oscars party and the U.S. Open—wearing white head to toe.
Rosalia is far from the only one sporting monochromatic looks at major sports events. The U.S. Open, which draws large crowds and attracts celebrities en masse, saw flocks of well-known figures, like Tina Knowles and Venus Williams, nodding to tennis whites. Wimbledon drew similar attention, with the likes of Maude Apatow and Andrew Garfield opting for texture-heavy monochromatic white outfits.
Hollywood has taken to the color, too. Eiseman and Pressman called out Jennifer Lawrence’s look at the 16th annual Governors Awards, where she wore a white Dior gown. Other A-list actors, like Pedro Pascal, have been spotted adding black accents to white outfits on the red carpet. Pascal wore a polka-dotted black ascot against a white suit jacket to promote “Fantastic Four.”
Pressman said that, while pop culture is one factor Pantone takes into account when deciding what the COTY will ultimately be, it’s a piece of a larger puzzle. Still, she said, the themes represented by the outfits artists, athletes and actors have chosen to wear embody the spirit of Cloud Dancer as Pantone sees it.
“I think the driver goes back to simplicity [and] clarity. How do we want to live? How do we want to feel? And that is coming through, whether you’re looking at Jennifer Lawrence, or whether you’re looking at Rosalia,” she said. “It’s that clean slate [mindset] that opens up the avenues of innovation and imagination. We can think of [white] not as a default, but as something that really opens our vistas.”
Each year, Pantone works to ensure its COTY selection is cohesive with the years that preceded it. Last year, the company selected Mocha Mousse, a warm-hued brown, as the 2025 COTY.
Eiseman said the neutral hues pair together seamlessly.
“We’re picturing it [as] the whipped cream on top of the Mocha Mousse,” Eiseman said. “They really complement each other in many ways.”
Pressman said Mocha Mousse was meant to instill a sense of comfort and warmth in COTY enthusiasts, in part because it’s a fluffy brown with light, white undertones. Pantone is hoping that same sense of comfort continues to be top of mind with Cloud Dancer.
“One of the things we really stressed last year with Mocha Mousse is that it was a light, whipped brown. It [lacked] heaviness. As we look to keep everything light around us, we did not want anything heavy,” she said. “[Cloud Dancer] is a further acknowledgement of well being, and how that is a given.”
