Our Thoughts on Peach Fuzz

PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz is a velvety gentle peach whose all-embracing spirit enriches heart, mind, and body.

Subtly sensual, PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz is a heartfelt peach hue bringing a feeling of kindness and tenderness, communicating a message of caring and sharing, community and collaboration. A warm and cozy shade highlighting our desire for togetherness with others or for enjoying a moment of stillness and the feeling of sanctuary this creates, PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz presents a fresh approach to a new softness. An appealing peach hue softly nestled between pink and orange, PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz inspires belonging, recalibration, and an opportunity for nurturing, conjuring up an air of calm, offering us a space to be, feel, and heal and to flourish from.

First impression of the 2024 Pantone Color of the Year? It is a pretty color. But we were expecting more.

Before I go any further, let’s add some context. I’ve been talking about color of the year for a long time (Viva Magenta, Very Peri, Classic Blue, Living Coral, Ultra Violet, Greenery, Marsala, Radiant Orchid, Emerald, and Honeysuckle Pink), but we’ve seen dramatic changes in the world over the last several years. We were hopeful that the Color of the Year would recognize these changes and use its platform and visibility to send a stronger message.

Heartfelt. Cozy. Sanctuary. Moment of stillness. Belonging. Nurturing. Calm. Peace. Poetic and romantic.

Those are just some of the words used to describe Peach Fuzz. And yes, many yearn for these things. But they are not at all reflective of today’s world. If we are being completely real, the truth is that we were a bit taken aback by the flowy, idealistic words used to describe the color and what it represents.

Wouldn’t we all love to live in a cozy world full of sweetness, comfort, and cocooned warmth? To exist in a place that “inspires belonging, recalibration, and an opportunity for nurturing, conjuring up an air of calm, offering us a space to be, feel, and heal and to flourish from.” Of course.

But the reality is far too many people will never experience the luxury of tuning out reality to find a “moment of stillness and … sanctuary.” There will be no moment of escape to luxuriate in a nurturing color.

It’s a lovely color. Truly. And we’ll succumb to the trend by serving peach-hued cocktails at a reception, requesting flesh-toned flowers in our arrangements, and finding ways to work this pretty shade into digital materials.

But we wish it wasn’t so tone-deaf and colorblind to the reality of our divided world. Further, there are so many rich, bold, inclusive colors that can inspire an image of community, sharing, and warmth.  To put it “lightly,” we wish the color of the year had more depth that could resonate across the much broader, more vibrant human spectrum.

It’s all in how it’s positioned.  To say “the color we selected to be our Pantone Color of the Year 2024 needed to express our desire to want to be close to those we love and the joy we get when allowing ourselves to tune into who we are and just savor a moment of quiet time alone” shows remarkable naivety to not only the state of the world, but the variety and vibrancy that its people represent. 

Perhaps a more accurate statement would have been “the color we selected to be our Pantone Color of the Year 2024 needed to shine a light on a very narrow perspective and remarkable privilege of the consumers whose hue we choose to celebrate.”

Your Turn!

What was your initial reaction? Did Peach Fuzz delight or disturb you?

Mazda T. Miles, CMM, is the owner and chief strategist at Perfection Events in Philadelphia. The firm specializes in design, planning and production of meetings and events for corporations, associations, nonprofit organizations and public sector entities. Learn more at perfection-events.com or call 888-267-1859.