Occasionally I talk about color trends, usually referencing Pantone’s Color of the Year if not the entire palette in their Fashion Color Report. This year I thought I’d compare their colors to ours, so if you’re using their swatches in your planning, here’s how you might make a match.

Pantone’s Color of the Year is Tangerine Tango, a very red orange (or orange red) that leans more toward melon in some of their fashion examples. According to Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®, “Consumers look to spring for renewed energy, optimism and the promise of a brighter day.” If brighter hues make for brighter days, look for Spring 2012 to be sunny, indeed.

Joining Tangerine Tango are an additional nine hues, including a bright gold-yellow called Solar Power (good morning, sunshine), an iris-purple called Bellflower, a bright (there’s that word again) pink called Cabaret, nautical blue called Sodalite Blue, the muted green Margarita, a blooming pale pink-purple called Sweet Lilac, another bright, this one a blue-green Cockatoo, and two neutrals, a warm gray called Driftwood and a dark sand called Starfish.

How do these compare to our colors? While we can match just about any color, we tend to group our choices around our tulle ribbon hues. This is our way of making sure that your decorated favors have the best color matching between their labels, tags, and bows. And with a palette of nearly 4 dozen tulle colors, we can match or complement just about any of your color choices.

Here are the nine colors we’ve matched to Pantone’s Spring 2012 choices; please note that each monitor renders color differently, so the actual tulle color may not match your screen perfectly:

Solar Power = Goldenrod
Bellflower = Lavender
Cabaret = Hot Pink
Sodalite Blue = Navy
Margarita = Sage
Sweet Lilac = Wisteria
Driftwood = Steel Gray
Cockatoo = Tiffany
Starfish = Chocolate (on the dark side…our Sand is a paler version)

We found Tangerine Tango more challenging to match. In the past few years we’ve seen a rise in the popularity of both coral and persimmon as wedding colors, so this bold choice for Color of the Year really fits the trend. However, I have yet to find a real, true Persimmon tulle color. I wrote about Coral last February, and even offered some ideas for persimmon and coral theme weddings. While we do carry a Coral tulle, it’s a bit pinker than Tangerine Tango. Our red is a little redder, orange a little oranger…well, you get the idea. Here are our options for colors all around Tangerine Tango:

I always wonder which of the colors will become the next big wedding hue…or if the next big thing is something completely different! Hot pink and Lavender have already been popular for the past year, and Tiffany also is a favorite (certainly one of my own favorites, too).

What do you see as the next big colors for fashion and weddings? Which of these swatches is your favorite?