• September 20, 2011

With Fashion Week's Spring runways exploding with bold colors last week, marketers will paint a brighter future for shoppers in the coming seasons.

Pantone, which just released its Colour Planner for Spring/Summer 2013, says the palette for women's wear, menswear, active wear, cosmetics, lifestyle and industrial and graphic design, will include brights that "move from the primary spectrum of past seasons into a new fluorescent range," the Carlstadt, N.J. company says. "And these super strong colors are paired with a family of soft sisters: five sweetened pastel tones."

Other trends include more natural colors, such as dusted pink, greeny-blue and burnt yellows, as well as dry browns, watered browns, wood browns and earth browns.

"Recent color block stories on the catwalk have paved the way for a new sense of color confidence among consumers," it adds. "For some time, color alone has been a significant factor in purchasing decisions. Today, equally important is the context of those color statements - the finish, fabric and form in which it is used."--Sarah Mahoney