Whenever I buy flowers for my home or as a gift, I usually choose lots of pink. This year, fashion experts say pink belongs in our closets as well as our vases.
A wide variety of shades and names of pink are popping up on virtual runways and Instagram pages. Fun, bright Bubblegum pink, Millennial pink and Barbie pink are the colors of chic, casual outfits. Fuchsia, Raspberry and Hot pink are for rich elegance and eye-catching beauty. An October article in Teen Vogue noted the hot pink trend: “Millennial pink’s little sister is loud, proud and aggressively feminine.”
Designers like Saint Laurent and Versace are showing pink in their collections. Vogue magazine featured a trio of supermodels in all pink at Paris Fashion Week in October. Celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Lopez are being photographed with pink outfits and accessories on the street.
Colors in the fashion world are led, if not dictated, by the Pantone Color Institute, which awards a color of the year designation annually, and puts together collections of colors for the fashion industry. While Pantone has named Illuminating, a bright yellow, and Ultimate Gray as 2021’s colors of the year, it is Raspberry Sorbet, one of 10 colors in the Spring/Summer 2021 New York Color Palette, that is most visible.
The pink trend is showing up in the Instagram pages of frum fashion bloggers. I contacted Eliana Ladenheim, aka “Eishes Style,” who has over 80,000 followers, after seeing a photo she posted of herself in a hot pink top.
Ladenheim said pink is usually somewhere in Pantone’s color list each year, though the shades vary, as opposed to colors like yellow and green that can be in or out. Pantone’s Raspberry Sorbet pink matches well with Pantone’s other popular earth tones—yellow, green, terra cotta brown and peach.
“All the Pantone colors that are in right now, so many different shades of pink match it,” she noted. “As a girl, I’m drawn to pink. If I’m putting together a brown outfit, I like to put in a little splash of pink, whether it’s light, medium or hot pink. The other day I was wearing my fuchsia/raspberry pink top. I paired it with a brown turban and loved the combination together.”
As for the kinds of clothes she is wearing, Ladenheim said she is starting to dress up a little more, for her own satisfaction. “I missed wearing skirts and dresses; I realized I was being drawn to leggings and sweatshirts. In order to feel more normal, I had to get dressed. I did notice it changed my mood, made me feel better.”
Bracha Gewirtz is a college student from Monsey who is “Fashionably Frum” on Instagram. In a photo on her page, she is wearing hot pink shoes with a black and white outfit. “I love black, white and pink; I think it’s really sharp,” she said. “With all its various shades, I consider pink versatile enough to be a neutral so it can go with everything—black, brown, navy. All those colors work well together.” A psychology major, Gewirtz said she got into fashion as a young teen when she decided to work on dressing more modestly. She began her Instagram page about a year ago to help others who want to be “modestly trendy and classy.” She makes videos to give tips, like how to wear one skirt five different ways, or take a sweater from everyday to a wedding.
Like Ladenheim, whom she follows for inspiration, pink is one of her favorite colors and can be found in her clothing, accessories and lipstick. “Bright pink is a year-round staple,” said Gewirtz. “You can wear it in the middle of winter, spring or summer.”
By Bracha Schwartz
