Recently, Pantone Color Institute has named its color of the year, Mocha Mousse 17-1230. Providing a stark contrast to last year’s youthful Peach Fuzz, the mellow shade of brown captures the essence of warmth and comfort for a truly remarkable 2025.
Pantone, the color card manufacturer turned ‘global authority of color,’ implemented their Color of the Year educational program in 1999 as a way to encourage members of the design community to connect through conversations about color, as well as draw attention to the relationship between color and modern culture. To decide on each year’s special color, their global team looks for macro influences— from lifestyles, textures, and even social economic conditions.
Laurie Pressman, the Vice President of the Pantone Colour Institute corrects the misconception that color selection takes place in one isolated meeting. Pressman rejects the notion that Pantone selects its Color of the Year through “a bunch of color influencers in a room one day [who] emerge with the decision;” instead, color experts pay attention to global trends and large-scale events to select (or even create, as the company did with 2022’s Very Peri 17-3938) a color that perfectly complements the year.
“It is one long, continuously flowing conversation among a group of color-attuned people,” Pressman added.
This year’s Mocha Mousse encourages color enthusiasts to “revel in your own special moments.” Evoking images of coffee, chocolate, and understated luxury, this Color of the Year choice redefines brown as a nurturing, earthly, shade of intimate indulgence.
“It reminds me of an espresso neutral color, the type you would see in nature, specifically like a tree bark,” said sophomore Avigail Shanun. “To me, the color is rather mesmerizing and gives a calming sense.”
The increasing use of brown shades has been noted by fashion journalists, such as New York Times fashion director, Vanessa Friedman, who said that “brown is a fashion neutral that’s often overlooked,” but especially popular with understated Italian Luxury brands and their focus on rich, plush materials. It has also been noted the increasing popularity of neutral accessories in the fashion world towards brown tones, which creates a warmer effect.
“The color named mocha mousse is seen in many places outside of mocha and mousse—it reminds me of slightly dry soil, of the rings in oak wood, and of bella mushrooms,” said senior Annette Lin.
Following the release of Mocha Mousse as 2025’s Color of the Year, many companies have already announced collaborations with Pantone, such as makeup company Ipsy’s release of beauty products in the shade of Mocha Mousse— acknowledging the shade’s dedication to wellness— as well as Motorola’s annual Color of the Year phone collection.
“I believe that Pantone’s focus on the more commercial aspects of this color reflect a larger cultural trend that gravitates toward consumption for comfort,” Lin said. “This is no fault of Pantone’s nor of the society it belongs to, but the marketing of this color through its relation to coffee and chocolate—historic markers of wealth which have had deep colonial implications in their progression from luxury to commodity—seems to support the narrative that purchasing can create comfort.”
Whether Mocha Mousse represents a desire of comfort, a touch of intricate luxury, or simply a matter-of-fact look at today’s society, one cannot deny the influence that Pantone’s Color of the Year program has. The shade brings not only trends to communities across the globe, but also connects the attitudes of millions— and immortalizes them in history.