On Thursday, Pantone announced its 2025 color of the year: Mocha Mousse. Far softer than the “Brat” green that dominated 2024, the shade is a nougaty brown that reminded Styles staff members of everything from luxury knitwear to swamp water.
Pantone’s trend prognosticators surveyed fashion and design to land on a color “infused with subtle elegance and earthy refinement,” Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, said in a statement. But in an oversaturated, digital world, does Mocha Mousse stand a chance at defining 2025?
Reporters and editors for the Styles desk sat down to debate. Let us know what you think in the comments.
VANESSA FRIEDMAN: So, after Viva Magenta and Peach Fuzz … Mocha Mousse! This is the first time in the 25-year history of Pantone’s color of the year that they’ve chosen a shade of brown, which is kind of a big deal. I admit, my mind went immediately to comfort eating.
ALEX VADUKUL: I also got warm and comfort-food vibes. I was getting 1990s java and internet cafe vibes.
STELLA BUGBEE: My mind went to what happens after comfort eating.
JEREMY ALLEN: Pantone’s official imagery tries to guide us in a more appetizing direction by showcasing a goblet of tantalizingly-whipped mousse. But my mind keeps pivoting to the ubiquitous swirled, smiling emoji that shares a similar tone.
MISTY WHITE SIDELL: It reminds me of kayaking in “alligator-y” parts of the Everglades — pure swamp.
CALLIE HOLTERMANN: It’s a kind of dusty brown: A touch warmer than William Wegman’s Weimaraner portraits, but less saturated than a bowlful of brownie batter. Farewell, “Brat” green.
ALLEN: Last year, T Magazine predicted we’d be “wearing a lot of brown in 2024.” Did that happen?
SIDELL: I’ve noticed a broader pivot in neutral accessories, which have been trending away from black shoes and bags toward warmer brown tones. It can create a softer effect.
FRIEDMAN: I do think brown is a fashion neutral that’s often overlooked — but one that’s especially popular with Italian brands, and their focus on leather, cashmeres and other plush materials. A brown leather trench is sort of the eternal Milan fashion week staple. So I can see this becoming a thing.
BUGBEE: If I saw a Loro Piana scarf in this color, I think I’d want to buy it.
FRIEDMAN: When I spoke to the Pantone folks, they talked a lot about the search for “harmony,” which they felt Mocha Mousse represents. I was surprised, given how much this year has seemed to be about disharmony — a state that shows no sign of ending. But then they also said the goal was aspirational. And that mousse was a kind of foodstuff made for sharing.
VADUKUL: The news release also gives some sense of what the Pantone people had in mind. They said Mocha Mousse appeals “to our desire for comfort” and that it represents a “growing movement to align ourselves more closely with the natural world.”
BUGBEE: It feels like such a repudiation of “Brat” green, which was a viral moment that no corporation could have predicted. So, in that way, it feels out of touch.
JEREMY ALLEN: There’s something inherently un-internet-y about a prediction. It asks us to essentially force a moment in time, whereas a meme seizes it.
SIDELL: I guess one broader thing to consider is — to what degree will this actually catch on? We’ve seen colors like “Brat” green and burgundy drive trends in fashion, but neither of those colors were selected by Pantone.
VADUKUL: Did Peach Fuzz or Viva Magenta ever catch on in any legitimate way? Or Very Peri, for that matter? Don’t forget Very Peri.
FRIEDMAN: Perhaps this is another example of the different realities that now exist at the same time: in one world, “Brat” green; in the other, the Pantone color of the year.
BUGBEE: But does the Pantone color of the year actually reflect any reality?
FRIEDMAN: It certainly drives an avalanche of product-related announcements. I predict many cosmetics companies and chocolatiers will embrace this one.
HOLTERMANN: That the green shade was so intentionally off-putting ended up helping it explode. And this color seems to be the opposite: Pantone, with its endless dessert metaphors, seems to want to offer us something tasty and comforting. Its collaborations with Motorola and a zillion other brands aim to turn that feeling into, well, consumption.
BUGBEE: What was the runner-up for the color of the year?
FRIEDMAN: What would be your nomination?
BUGBEE: I would choose GOLD. It feels like we’re in a new Gilded Age.
FRIEDMAN: The incoming president does love a bit of gilt.
VADUKUL: In the wake of Cattelan’s wall-taped banana sale …
BUGBEE: Yes! Banana Yellow would be a great color of the year.
VADUKUL: It really would. It feels prophetic, timely and a bit deranged.
BUGBEE: Everything is bananas!
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