Say Goodbye to Minimalism—Now It's Time to Wear Color!

It seems the time has come to say goodbye to minimalism. Thanks to brands leading with showy colors, fashion is becoming fun again.

Courtesy of Vogue

The surest proof is the 2027 spring/summer menswear season, which was overflowing with color pairings that instantly made you think, 'This is it!' Celine paired a camel sweater with a pink cummerbund, and Ralph Lauren added lively hues to the familiar preppy color palette. Amy Smilovic, founder of Tibi — a brand that rose to attention during the 'quiet luxury' trend for its practical yet elegant clothes — also sensed this shift. "The whole season had a light, fresh mood. It felt like taking a deep breath of fresh air," she said.

Smilovic said she recently called her design director after packing for a summer vacation and finding her suitcase inexplicably full of colorful clothes. "I never, ever tend to wear colored clothes! From pastels to 'strange' hues, before I knew it I had packed a whole range of colors," she said. She added that the menswear season was the same: when the world feels gloomy like now, you need light, cheerful clothes.

Lii 2027 S/S Menswear

Saint Laurent 2025 F/W RTW

Of course, this trend didn’t start out of nowhere. Lii, led by Chinese-born designer Zane Li, showed intriguing color combinations and futuristic silhouettes and was shortlisted as a finalist for the Vogue and CFDA–co‑sponsored Fashion Fund. And one can't leave out Saint Laurent's Fall/Winter 2025 collection, which was full of colors that evoked Marrakech, the city Yves Saint Laurent adored.

COMME des GARÇONS 2027 S/S Menswear

Louis Vuitton 2027 S/S Menswear

The same movement could be felt at New York Fashion Week this past February for the 2026 fall/winter season. Pantone selected 'Festive Fuchsia' (a deep magenta) and 'Green Envy' (an olive green with a sun‑faded look) as the season’s representative colors, and Vogue also ran a piece noting shoes that resembled 'pea soup.' The shift from minimalism toward maximalism isn't confined to fashion; pop culture is following suit. With Ryan Murphy's The Shards set to be released in about two weeks, attention is expected to turn to the yuppies who embraced bold color styling. The taffeta pants that graced this season’s runways are proof of that.

Thom Browne 2027 S/S Menswear

Willy Chavarria 2027 S/S Menswear

What made the 2027 spring/summer menswear season even more special was that color took center stage. This is a complete departure from the past, when vivid, showy hues merely served as accents; now an era has begun in which it's acceptable to mix wildly different colors. A prime example is Michael Rider's Celine: a tomato‑red sweater, a plum‑colored cummerbund, and deep brown trousers might sound discordant on paper, but the looks that appeared on the runway felt utterly harmonious.

Celine 2027 S/S Menswear

Leatrice Eiseman, executive director at Pantone, explains it this way: "The red is the first thing to grab your attention. The purple cummerbund at the waist doesn't clash with the red; it creates an engaging contrast. By introducing a different color for the trousers as well, the eye is divided into three focal points. The red's powerful presence remains intact." As she indicates, even when using multiple colors, a harmonious color styling only comes together when each hue has a clear role.

Auralee 2027 S/S Menswear

Auralee, one of the brands leading today’s color trend, showed a similar approach. A look pairing a dark navy Harrington jacket with an aqua floral shirt and shorts that seemed to borrow the color of a swimming pool is a perfect example. Eiseman advises that people's eyes are always drawn to the brightest color. "In Auralee's look there are two places the eye is pulled to. The large‑area shorts are the first thing you notice, followed by the shirt, which uses a color from the same family. Thanks to those two color points, the somewhat ordinary navy jacket feels more appealing." In other words, the key to current color styling isn't 'mixing intense colors indiscriminately' but rather repeating related hues throughout a look to guide the eye naturally.

Marc Jacobs 2027 S/S RTW

By contrast, Marc Jacobs cleverly employed the most basic principles of color theory. Take the look that paired a yellow minidress with purple tights. Eiseman explains that yellow and purple are complementary colors. They don't fight to be the star; instead, they make each other pop. Marc Jacobs's use of both glossy and sheer materials at the same time also stood out.

Jada Schumacher, a FIT professor and color‑strategy expert, says that a look that smartly arranges interesting colors 'feels new the more you look at it.' That means it offers the opposite experience of the current generation's tendency to consume content instantly and forget it easily. She also predicted that the recent trend will spread beyond the fashion industry to the public. Whether in interior design or an individual's wardrobe, she explained, it will become more important to build a personal world by considering the overall mood rather than collecting individual standout items. Pantone offered a similar outlook, citing the advertising industry's increasing use of bolder colors as evidence.

Now, it's meaningless to talk about 'trend colors' or to distinguish brands by color. A new era has begun in which designers, while maintaining their identities, use color far more freely than before.

Published: July 24, 2026

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