A Very Brady Kitchen

Brandweek, Feb 14, 2000 by Becky Ebenkamp

Carol and Alice will be tickled pink. According to color trends tracked by Young & Rubicam's Brand Futures Group, Mother Nature may again wreak havoc on homes: The avocado-green kitchen is ripe for a return. Here's the dirt on that and other things that will color your world.

* New shades for shades: In the U.S., interior design experts foresee "in-your-face" color giving way to softer blues and greens and metallic gray, and they predict the unappealing sounding brown and gray as next fall's hot combo. Retro '70s shades such as avocado green and harvest gold, they say, will be embraced by consumers who are likely too young to remember the Earthtones explosion during its horrific heyday.

According to the U.K's Independent, this year's interior design trends take their hue cues from Latin America and the Far East. That translates to more "deeply felt" colors like burnt red, magenta and plum, accented with silver, gold and neons--especially yellow. No need for a big paint job, although: These shades are being shown in single-wall color blocks, surrounded by neutrals.

Meanwhile, the trend of bringing the garden inside may promote the use of all shades of green, from celadon to citrus. Grassy greens will spring up underfoot, in carpeting and bath mats.

* Underpants of chance: In Latin America, the color of one's underwear gains significance as a new year begins. Wearing yellow briefs or panties on New Year's Eve is traditionally believed to bring good fortune, while red unmentionables are thought to spur a love love connection. This past holiday season, a "millennium rush" for these shorts shades started a stampede at Mexico City department store Liverpool. Fortune-seeking men had cleaned out the stock of yellow boxers by Dec. 22, and passion-craving women seriously depleted the supply of red knickers.

Brazil has elaborated on the tradition with a rainbow of underwear-related beliefs. Some women don yellow for money or red for passion, while others pick pink for love or white for peace. Men simply sport white briefs for good luck.

* Politically correct purple: Along with gray and silver, purple dominated the Indonesian fashion scene last year as young women followed the lead of gray-and violet-clad celebrities. The trend should continue this year, given the influence of new vice president Megawati Soekarnoputri, who dresses in shades of purple for many ceremonies and official trips. At last year's swearing-in ceremony, she appeared in a violet baju kurung, a traditional dress.

* Au revoir to noir: Color neutrals have gradually faded from the fashion forefront the past few seasons, and spring/summer 2000 fashion shows in the world's style capitals gave basic black its pink slip. In New York, designer Michael Kors trotted out a fruity palette of lemons, limes and peaches; in London, design team Clements Ribeiro splashed out in polka dots of yellow, green and tangerine; and in Milan, Prada paraded reds and purples down the runway. Even Armani injected lime, fuchsia and shades of blue into his typically sober designs. And for those in the real world, Gap brightened up its neutrals--and hopefully the disposition of those sulky singing models--with the transfusion of some much-needed color for holiday and spring.

* How about Gremlim green? Or Pinto bean?: A retro-futuristic concept car making the auto show rounds owes its generic-sounding moniker to the eye-grabbing paint color. Ford Motor Company president and CEO Jac Nasser dubbed the model "021C," the name of its deep-orange paint. With a single headlight and taillight, swiveling seats and a slide-out trunk, the auto is aimed at a new generation of customers driven more by a fascination with pop culture than a love of cars.

White was the top color choice for U.S. buyers of new cars and trucks in 1999, according to a survey by auto-paint supplier DuPont Herberts Automotive Systems. The desire for a techno look helped silver bump green from the second-place berth. Other colors favored by car buyers: blue and black.

* Togs for the Tube: London Underground employees are swapping their Day-Glo orange waistcoats for more subdued blue, silver and red uniforms created by workwear designer Anne Tyrell. By spring, all of the system's 7,000 station workers will be wearing sports jackets, padded waistcoats, Doc Martens and hats bearing high-visibility reflective bands. With its new shades drawn from the Underground's official palette, the look is intended to reinforce the organization's corporate image and "reflect [its] status as a world-class transport company" in the words of a video instructing staff how to wear the outfits. Whether one wants to board a subway operated by people who need instruction in how to wear a uniform is another matter entirely.

* In Living color: A 1966 Time article predicted big things by the year 2000. "Biologists think that before the century is out, they will have succeeded in changing the information contained in DNA," the magazine said. "If so, it will become possible eventually to control the shape--or color--of men." If we count this as the final year of the 20th century, those biologists still have a few months to make their deadline, unless the whitening of Michael Jackson somehow qualifies.