Giulia Marzovilla
Julia Marzovilla
Posted 20 days ago
When Taylor Swift released her album Midnights in late 2022, I don’t think she anticipated that the first track “Lavender Haze” would inspire one of the biggest color trends of 2023. “Digital Lavender” has been officially named the color of the year for 2023 by trend forecasting site WSGN and its sister company Coloro, and it has already become one of the major trends for winter 2023. In advance, we spoke with trend forecasting experts about how to buy and design digital lavender in the year ahead, including some of the popular items broken down by category to make shopping easier.
While Barbiecore pink first appeared in the Valentino Fall/Winter 2022 show and then spread to nearly every corner of the fashion and beauty world last year, after years of loungewear suits and leggings, it’s all about minimalism and this new fashion color brings a touch of serenity to add to your closet for the coming year. “Digital lavender is a color of hope and positivity,” says Clare Smith, (opens in new tab) WGSN’s color strategist. “This shade expresses the much-needed cautious optimism and escapism that people crave after a pandemic or even during times of budgetary austerity; it’s imaginative and creative, but also expresses serenity and balance.”
Digital Lavender Trends
While there was definitely a moment this year, this particular shade of purple isn’t necessarily new. In fact, WSGN says the color has been popular for several years. “[When] we first predicted digital lavender in 2021, purple was one of the fastest growing colors year-over-year on the Fall/Winter 21/22 runway, with cooler purples like digital lavender up 55 percent year-over-year,” Smith said. Smith said the color just took off from there, with “soft purples making up 57.2 percent of the mix” in the spring/summer 2022 season. She also noted that lavender’s popularity and frequency on the runway “rose to 61.6 percent in the Spring/Summer 23 collection.
And it doesn’t look like digital lavender is going away anytime soon. A quick search on TikTok for “how to style lavender” brings up hundreds of fashion videos, many of which have been viewed tens of thousands of times. Beauty videos featuring purple blush on the app have also recently proliferated, with the #purpleblush hashtag bringing in 41.5 million views.
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Smith said, “Purple has become a favorite among young people, and as Generation Z’s spending power begins to take hold, this generation will continue to drive the color and a new narrative around purple will take hold.” “The focus for 2023 will be on showcasing the color and harnessing its true potential and moving away from the narrative that pastels are only for spring and summer.”
How to Style Digital Lavender
If you’re thinking of adding a few lavender pieces to your 2023 closet, take some styling tips from the shows and red carpets. It can be paired with other vibrant colors like red or mint green, as brands like Tibi and Brandon Maxwell often did in their Spring/Summer 2023 shows. In the former, sheer, silky lavender layers were paired with warm brown oversized blazers or soft blue-green blazers. In the latter, shimmering lavender mini dresses and bustiers were paired with light pink oversized blazers or embellished knits in the same hue. Elsewhere, such as at Veronica Beard, lavender purple was once again seen alongside lemon green in the form of matching short suits paired with matching thick-soled heels.
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The shade also looks great when worn completely alone, just like Barbie pink. For example, at Acne Studios’ Spring/Summer 2023 show, models wore cut-out knit suits in the shade of the runway, and celebrities like Kaley Cuoco and Laura Harrier recently wore lavender dresses to the 2023 Emmy Awards and to the Saint Laurent Fall/Winter 2023-2024 menswear show in Paris. To mimic the look, trend forecaster Jessica Richards suggests wearing head-to-toe shades this year, including your footwear and other accessories. “What I loved seeing at the Spring/Summer 2023 shows was how designers immediately refreshed the trend by shifting from a pastel palette to digital lavender for a fresh take on extremely feminine and romantic looks,” she says. Think: delicate socks, oversized jewelry and ruffled dress silhouettes.
Or consider pairing this hue with other traditionally feminine shades, such as pink. Digital lavender appeared in Blumarine’s recent Resort 2023 collection in the form of a dazzling lavender short sweatshirt paired with light pink sheer pants in a very cool hue that, depending on the light, could almost be mistaken for lavender. “Digital lavender also has the unique ability to incorporate this moody feel and is perfect for pairing with black,” Richards continued, citing Victoria Beckham in opaque black tights, matching heels and a black bra with ruffled edge, sheer lavender dress. . For the minimalist trend, check out Interior’s Resort 2023 collection, where one model wore a sequin floor-length dress in a soft lavender hue.
