Blue & Brown. It wasn't so very long ago, when black was the new white, that brown was considered "a dirty color." But that was before Starbucks and UPS made brown "it," as reported by Sally Beatty in The Wall Street Journal. (2/4/05). These days, "brown" -- or should we say -- "Glazed Ginger" is "number two" on Pantone's list of the top-ten colors for fall 2005." The number one color? That would be "Moroccan Blue." Put them together -- blue and brown -- and you have the hottest fashion color combo today. Wait -- blue and brown? Designer Tracy Reese explains: "Sometimes blue can seem cold. But the brown warms it up." It also makes the brown look a little orange -- just ask anyone who went to Tufts (whose official seal now seems to have abandoned brown for black).

Exactly how certain colors find their way to the top of Pantone's list -- and on everything from apparel to automobiles -- is one the great imponderables of popular culture. If you ask designers, they will tend to tell you that it's just one great big cosmic giggle. "It's in my psyche," says designer Nanette Lepore, who says her "peacock blue ... were inspired by her vacations on Italy's Amalfi coast." Peter Som says his blue dresses were inspired by "Johannes Vermeer, whose painting 'Girl With a Pearl Earring' was the subject of a novel and then a 2003 movie" (someone else will have to explain why 'Girl in Hyacinth Blue' was written about the same time, and why high school English teachers now feel compelled to torture their students by having them read both books). The grand puppeteer, here, is, of course, Pantone, www.pantone.com, which comes up with the list. Although their choices are far from arbitrary.

Both blue and brown have been on the rise for about the last five years, based on Pantone's relentless scouring of "magazines, advertising, movies and other facets of pop culture for color cues; it surveys art exhibits and socio-economic trends, and even considers the state of the global economy." Brown has been on Pantone's "fast track," in no small part because of the "Starbucks phenomenon," as well as UPS's ad campaign, "What Can Brown Do For You?" Blue, meanwhile, has always been a popular color, but apparently was helped along by its prominence in the operating platforms for both Microsoft's Windows and Apple's iMac. And Vermeer. It's also worth noting that sales of both blue and light-brown cars are up. Bubbling under the top ten right now is "vibrant orange." Falling off the list for the first time in six seasons is pink, which, according to a Pantone spokesperson, "has run its course and has become so ubiquitous." You can download a PDF of the full Fall 05 report here.

Tim Manners, editor