Luciana & Pantone Color of the Year 2018

I always enjoy looking at the intersection between Pantone's Color of the Year and American Girl's own Girl of the Year.

Pantone Color of the Year for 2018 is Ultra Violet.

Remind you of anything?

Yes, Luciana's purple hair streak!

Allure Magazine calls it a "vivid-yet-not-quite-neon purple hue" and notes that it may convince even more people to try out purple hair this year. Check out the Allure link for more images of this shiny hue as found in hair and makeup products.

The Wonderful! World of Grace: Color Quest

Welcome to our newest feature series on Poppets & Posies: The Wonderful! World of Grace.

In The Wonderful! World of Grace series we will be featuring weekly close up reviews and photo essays of Grace's world--the doll, her clothing, books, and doll accessories.

Our first offering is a new set of Color Quest infographics which look with more detail at the distinct color scheme of Grace's collection.

Above is last week's infographic now with Grace's wardrobe pieces included. As discussed previously, Grace's colors do not quote directly from Pantone's Fashion Color Report (left) and instead offer a bright and bold neapolitan inspired palette.

Even Grace's accessories--including her dog, Bonbon--closely follow Grace's color scheme.

And the French Bakery! And Bistro! And Pastry Cart Accessories! I simply adore what I see with these sets. While the colors quite bright, especially with the large colorful surfaces of the gigantic French Bakery, its design still seems grounded in reality, such as suggestion of gray slate tiles on the rooftop and other distinctly French architectural details.

I plan to be up early and drive up to Palo Alto in time for the store opening, so later in the afternoon look for an AGPSF Flash update and perhaps some first photos of Grace!

Waiting for Grace: Paris & Patisserie Colors

With images publicly accessible (though yet to be linked to AG's store front) we now know the predominant colors of Grace's whole world--her outfits, accessories, and furniture pieces.

For the past several GOTYs the AG design team seems to have lined up the collection with Pantone's Fashion Color Report for that year. The colors seen on the fashion runways were also the colors showing up in the GOTY. But for GOTY 2015 there is a marked break from the fashion colors and American Girl instead chose a bold and unique color palette to brand Grace Thomas and her Paris & Patisserie world.

The infographic below allows comparison of the two color schemes.

There is absolutely no correlation between Pantone's colors and Grace's color palette--AG has gone bold with frothy candy colors paired with even more bold accent colors. In many ways, Grace's color palette reminds me of neapolitan colors but with a kick. 

AG also pairs or groups the colors in Grace's outfits and accessories for maximum impact. Teal and black. Pink and black. Red, teal, and black. 

In other words, there is no mistaking the look of Grace's world--this new color scheme is unique to her.

Are you excited by this dramatic change up in colors and design direction for GOTY 2015?

Waiting for Grace: A First Look!

This has been the moment I have been waiting for--out first photograph hint of Grace Thomas! Her mini doll version was spotted for sale on Taobao.com.

She has long dark brown hair with side bangs and what appears to be blue eyes. She has freckles and her face mold is most likely to be the Josefina mold, but that is hard to confirm from the mini doll's face.

Her meet outfit seems to consist of a flared raspberry skirt with a dark blue bow, the cutest ankle boots with side tassels, and a white tshirt with an Eiffel tower decal. While the mini doll appears to have her hair pulled back into a pony tail, the small book cover shows her with long hair. The book cover also shows her wearing a beret with a heart detail--I bet we see this item in her accessories.

It seems from the book's cover that indeed, as a I predicted, Grace will have a black and white French bulldog. And that red chair set sure seems to be seated outside of a bistro or bakery!

Her Meet Outfit does not have any hint of the 2015 color of the year, the earthy wine tone Marsala. However, pale Aquamarine is hinted at in her tshirt decal and Classic Blue seems to be an anchor for her outfit as seen in her boots and the bow on her skirt. I predict that the blue hues will be featured in the rest of her wardrobe. Not to mention that Grace's blue eyes really sparkle. But what about that bright raspberry skirt?

Could her raspberry skirt be a throwback to the 2014 color of the year Radiant Orchid? It sure seems close, but the other blue hues of the 2014, Dazzling Blue and Placid Blue, lack the punch of the updated 2015 blues.

More than likely the raspberry skirt color was selected as a complementary knockout color to contrast again the blues in the new 2015 color fashion report line up. While the prominence of the raspberry does not bode well for Marsala showing up in her wardrobe, that is not entirely unexpected considering this line of clothing is for kids and their dolls.

I still need to wait and see the full sized 18" version of Grace Thomas before making any real judgements on what I think of her, but so far, I am pleasantly pleased by her design. While being distinctive looking, her overall design (both doll features and wardrobe) does not appear to radically break away from previous GOTY dolls. 

Waiting for Grace: Color Quest Update

We finally have Pantone's color of the year for 2015: Marsala! I have been following Pantone's color reports for GOTY wardrobe speculations since discovering through my own research (see Color Quest posts for Isabelle, Saige, McKenna, Kanani, and Lanie) the strong influence of the color fashion reports in the recent GOTY wardrobes.

Marsala is quite a deep and earthy tone, so it is possible that it will not have much influence on Grace Thomas' wardrobe. However, Marsala would make a beautiful leather color for boots, belts, and even a purse, so I am not ready to count it out yet just.

Will Marsala be too mature a color to appear in Grace's wardrobe? I am hoping for at least a hint of Marsala to ground the color palette, though it still remains to be seen if any of Pantone 2015 Color Fashion Report colors will be featured in her wardrobe.

Color Quest: Lanie's Color Palette

Lanie was GOTY for 2010, and her wardrobe is bright and bold with stripes and plaids!

While Lanie's wardrobe design only takes three of the hot colors of the Spring 2010 season--Ampero Blue, Aurora (yellow), and Tomato Puree (red)--it uses them enthusiastically. The wardrobe pieces stick almost entirely to the this primary color triad, and when adding other colors, the designers chose bright secondary colors (green and orange) for contrast.

Though one has to look at the meet shoes to really get the blue/yellow hit in her Meet Outfit.

Her nightgown repeats the blue and yellow pairing.

The bold Tomato Puree makes a splash in her Butterfly Outfit.

Ampero Blue is in this plaid, but really, plaid is the main event in her Garden Outfit.

And rounding out her wardrobe is her Nature Outfit, which capitalizes on the bright and bold combination of Ampero Blue and Aurora.

Next week in Color Quest:  Chrissa & Friends!

Kanani's Color Palate

Over the past few weeks I have been sharing my observations of the possible connection between Pantone's Fall or Spring Fashion Color Reports with the color design of wardrobes of the respective Girl of the Year (released between the two seasons on New Year's Day). Some GOTY color palettes seem to look back to the prior fall season, like Saige, and others, like Isabelle, look forward to the spring colors of the upcoming year.

Kanani's color palette, while definitely showing a connection to the spring color forecast of her release year, does not show as strong of a correlation as new GOTY releases, prompting the need for further analysis. (It should be noted, the Fall 2010 color forecast fared even worse against her Hawaiian themed wardrobe.)

I will start by saying that I still remember Kanani's release in 2011. I was not in the market for a GOTY doll, but each year the hype around GOTY seemed to increase and like many AG fans, I was very eager to see the new doll and her wardrobe. My first impressions were "Wow, that is a lot of purple and fushia," and "I guess that is what little girls like." To be completely honest, I thought maybe the AG design team had tossed up their hands and decided to deliver a "crowd pleasing" (for young girls) purple-and-fushia bonanza.

So is there a correlation between Kanani's colors and the Spring 2011 color forecast? Or did AG designers unleash a purple-and-fushia blitz? Maybe a little of both. More analysis below.

Let's start with an outfit with the purple-fushia mashup, her Hawaiian Lu'au Outfit.

As you can see, I did not select any of the Spring 2011 colors as being specifically alluded to by Kanani's outfit. Pantone's versions of pink (Honeysuckle) and purple (Lavender) in the Spring forecast are far too light and muted to be considered as showing up in this outfit.

Examining Kanani's meet outfit offers very little correlation, either, though the case can be made for the Regatta blue found in her dress--a  blue that appears extensively in her collection.

One might be ready to decide that the designers of Kanani's wardrobe palette went rogue that year--until looking at her pajamas!

Blue Curacao sleeveless tunic! Regatta leggings! Peapod slippers! Jackpot! This combination is just unique enough to indicate a deliberate nod to the spring season's hot colors.

Regatta shows up strong both in her Party Dress above and her Beach Outfit below.

So is the Pajama Outfit a convincing enough nod toward the Spring 2011 color forecast? Or did AG just pick colors that evoked the blues of the Hawaiian ocean waters and the purples and fushias of its gorgeous native flowers? I am inclined to believe it was a combination of the two, where the stunning natural setting of Kanani's home needed to trump the color palette offerings of the year--but without totally abandoning the forecast, either. And a bit of purple whimsy never hurts. 

A Colorful Look Back at Girl of the Year 2013: Saige Copeland

Saige Copeland has been a beautiful offering from American Girl as their Girl of the Year 2013. A final "colorful" look back on her wardrobe reveals that while her range of clothing was clearly inspired by southwestern themes and colors, that Saige's wardrobe may also been influenced by color forecasting in the larger fashion industry. How well did Saige's wardrobe line up with the color trends of this past year? Let's compare her outfits with Pantone's Fashion Color Report release in the months leading up to her premiere.

Ever wonder where that unusual palette of colors came from in Saige's Pajamas?

Or how about her Meet Dress? Was that simply southwestern colors, or perhaps riding the color waves noted in Pantone's Fall 2012 color report?

Sparkle Dress seems spot on trend.

Even the Sweater Outfit picks up on the same colors.

What do you think? Was Saige's wardrobe right on color trend?

There have been several sneak peaks of Isabelle Palmer's wardrobe online--her wardrobe colors seem to be looking ahead to Pantone's Fashion Color Report for Spring 2014. Stay tuned for a color comparison once Isabelle and her wardrobe is released on January 1st, 2014!