Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2026 Is a ‘Blank Canvas’ Called Cloud Dancer—or, in Other Words, White

The hue is the first shade of white to receive the title. Officials at the Pantone Color Institute say it’s “a symbol of calming influence in a frenetic society rediscovering the value of measured consideration and quiet reflection”

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

December 5, 2025

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Pantone has announced the official color of the year for 2026: a shade of white called “Cloud Dancer.”

Also known as Pantone 11-4201, Cloud Dancer is “a billowy white imbued with a feeling of serenity,” according to a statement from the company. The announcement features photos of a dancing woman wearing loose white clothing against a backdrop of puffy clouds.

“The cacophony that surrounds us has become overwhelming, making it harder to hear the voices of our inner selves,” says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, in the statement. “A conscious statement of simplification, Cloud Dancer enhances our focus, providing release from the distraction of external influences.”

The Pantone Color Institute has been announcing a color of the year since 1999, when it declared a muted blue called “Cerulean” as the hue of 2000. Its pick for 2025 was a light brown dubbed “Mocha Mousse,” the first shade of brown to receive the title. Cloud Dancer is Pantone’s first white color of the year. “The closest they came before was ‘Sand Dollar,’ the color of the year for 2006, which was more beige,” says the New York Times’ Vanessa Friedman in a conversation with fellow journalists.

With its color of the year, Pantone aims to forecast design trends. Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, said in 2022 that the color of the year “is a color we see crossing all areas of design; a color that serves as an expression of a mood and an attitude on the part of the consumers.” This year, according to the company, consumers aspire to “a future free from excess” and desire “feelings of peace, unity and cohesiveness.”

Pantone’s latest selection has elicited a range of reactions. “This says a lot about the state of the world, how boring,” commented one Instagram user on Pantone’s announcement. Another wrote, “The color of the year being colorless is a recession indicator.”

White is an enigmatic hue. White light is made of all colors on the visible light spectrum, but no other pigments can be mixed to make it. Pantone compares Cloud Dancer to a “blank canvas,” signifying “our desire for a fresh start.”

“This is a structural color that goes well with anything and everything,” Pressman tells the Washington Post’s Rachel Kurzius. “Whether you are including it with bright colors, whether you are including it with pastels, it works.”

Pantone has partnered with several other brands to create products that use Cloud Dancer. Consumers can now purchase Cloud Dancer Post-its, Command hooks, Play-Doh and sofas—products that were all previously available in white.

But officials at Pantone insist that the specific shade of white is important. Cloud Dancer has an “equal balance of cool and warm undertones,” Pressman tells CNN’s Issy Ronald. “Had we gone for a white that was more optically bright, not only does it take away from the natural feeling and honesty and authenticity that we’re looking for … it almost speaks to sterility and isolationism, because it’s cold.”

Across different cultures, the color white has been connected with a variety of meanings. “There are so many associations with white: the white dove of peace, the baptismal gown, the wedding dress, the white T-shirt,” Friedman says in the Times. “In some Asian countries, mourning. … So not really that blank at all.”

Sonja Anderson | Read More

Sonja Anderson is a daily correspondent for Smithsonian magazine who covers art, archaeology and culture, from newly discovered artifacts to the latest art heists.