Every December, the design world holds its breath for a single announcement: Pantone’s Color of the Year. This decision sets an important tone for fashion, interior design, and graphic arts for the coming year.

Capturing the cultural zeitgeist and trends for the year ahead is a tricky business. But every year, the Pantone Color Institute chooses a color to do precisely that. And it has settled on a shade of white,

The Pantone Color Institute has officially unveiled its 2026 Color of the Year.

Famed color factory Pantone released its shade of the upcoming year, or perhaps more appropriately for 2026, its lack of shade.

The New Jersey company, considered a global authority on color trends, has selected a single shade as the “color of the year” every year since 1999. The color is used to signal what’s ahead for design and fashion. In a post on their Instagram page, they announced that the color for 2026 is “PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer.”

Pantone’s 2026 color of the year is historic and, technically, not a color at all — meet Cloud Dancer, the first-ever white shade to receive the designation from the world’s color authority.