Fashion Already Loves Pantone's 2025 Color of the Year

As the new year approaches, so do all the trend forecasts, including for 2025 color trends. Pantone led the charge, as always, by announcing its color of the year. Thursday morning, it revealed a chocolatey hue as the reigning shade of next year: Mocha Mousse 

The color (numbered Pantone 17-1230 within the company's color system) is already a fashion-favorite of sorts, as chocolate brown has been a top color trend across recent runways. This softer hue is "sophisticated and lush, yet at the same time an unpretentious classic," according to Pantone Color Institute Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman in a press release.

"Mocha Mousse extends our perceptions of the browns from being humble and grounded to embrace the aspirational and luxe," Eiseman continued. "Infused with subtle elegance and earthy refinement, PANTONE 17-1230 Mocha Mousse presents a discrete and tasteful touch of glamour. [It] envelopes us with its sensorial warmth."

Expect to continue seeing this dessert-reminiscent hue in fashion, already boosted by brands like Toteme and Miu Miu. In the world of interiors, the mocha color will likely start trending as the hue of choice for sectionals or throws. Expect plenty of chocolatey colored wood tables and chairs, and brown leather accents in the new year. 

Every year Pantone releases its stand-out color in design and lifestyle. An international team of color and design experts meticulously analyze color trends across various fields (from fashion, interior design, to artwork) before naming the chosen shade. Mocha Mousse follows Pantone's eyebrow-raising pick in 2024, Peach Fuzz, which received backlash for its rather boring and non-inclusive hue. A New York Times Style reporter wrote that the color, plus its name, "hews pretty closely to the shades worn by white people that there are no shortage of."

Pantone Vice President Laurie Pressman noted in a press release that the color ought to invoke a sense of "harmony," which "brings feelings of contentment, inspiring a positive state of inner peace, calm, and balance as well as being tuned in with the world around us. Harmony embraces a culture of connection and unity as well as the synthesis of our mental, spiritual and physical well-being.”

This fall, celebrities and designers have already been embracing chocolatey hues, spanning something like Mocha Mousse to deeper shades. Stylish celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence have also been snapped dressed up in the trendy shade, proving this color trend is not going anywhere anytime soon. Chocolate has been prevalent in beauty trends too, across nails and makeup, proving the omnipresence of this 2025 color trend.