A reddish-pink is Pantone’s color of 2011. Will it take off in Asheville?

by Mick Kelly . photo by Matt Rose

It’s that time of year again. In this case, time for color giant Pantone to paint towns pink.

Since 2007, Pantone, a mammoth New Jersey company that creates colors for everything from fabric to industrial plastics, has been announcing a color of the year. In 2009, it was “mimosa,” a yellowish orange. In 2010, it was turquoise. For 2011, Pantone’s Color Institute picked a reddish pink that it calls “honeysuckle” and predicts that the pink will show up in a slew of products, from wedding dresses to appliances. “Honeysuckle is a captivating, stimulating color that gets the adrenaline going,” Leatrice Eiseman, the institute’s executive director, said in a press release about the announcement in mid-December. “It’s perfect to ward off the blues.”

Asheville boutique owners and fashionistas haven’t seen a wave of reddish-pink inventory yet, but they weren’t altogether down on the idea. “It’s an optimistic color,” says Frock’s manager Jenny Lane. She and her mom Betsy Bradfield had a few honeysuckle items in the store when we stopped by in January. Because Pantone’s announcement affects fashion designers, Lane anticipates seeing more of it when they travel to a trade show in Las Vegas this month.

Orlando Hernandez, co-owner of Union boutique in downtown Asheville, had one honeysuckle-colored dress by Wish Collection in the shop in January, and he wouldn’t be opposed to seeing more of the color in their spring lines. “It pops,” he says.

Gretchen Smith was skeptical. Smith works at Asheville’s House of Fabrics on Merrimon Avenue and wasn’t sure about the color’s name. She doesn’t think of honeysuckle as pink, she says, but as a white or yellow. And Dede Souza, co-owner of the new boutique Bette in Biltmore Park, says she doesn’t think Pantone’s announcement will influence her inventory. The only trendy color she’s ever picked up on is purple. “A variation of purple seems to happen every fall,” she says. Souza says she’s a fan of hot pink for spring and summer, but not necessarily the new Pantone color.