Star Struck Style

Pantone has declared “Very Peri” the 2022 Color of the Year. It’s a periwinkle blue that is the exact shade of the beautiful Tanzanite cabochon ring that I’m so fond of wearing.

Periwinkle is a spring-blooming, herbaceous perennial that I grow in my garden. Its botanical name is “Vinca,” but people also know it as “Myrtle.” It is exactly the color shown in the photo I posted above. The blossoms are lovely in springtime, popping up against the glossy, green foliage of the plant before almost anything else is blooming in the garden.

In that respect, I associate the color with springtime. In this part of the world, that can mean any time from March to May. Astrologically speaking, the Pisces/Aries cusp marks the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere. Jupiter will be crossing that cusp in mid-May during 2022, right about the time that the periwinkle in my garden will be at its peak.

I do get Pisces vibes from the color. With Jupiter in Pisces as 2022 begins, I suppose that makes sense. In “Star Struck Style,” I mention that any color that is hard to describe with a single name is a Pisces color. The idea that periwinkle the plant is also known by several different names also makes sense.

It seems like an optimistic choice for the future. In 2021, the Pantone Institute named a dull gray the “Color of the Year,” alongside a cheery, bright yellow. It was if they were hedging their bets in case the pandemic got worse. Getting back to the tradition of choosing a single color seems apropos now that vaccines are allowing many of us to return to a somewhat normal life. To me, “Very Peri” represents “renewal” quite literally because it reminds me of a harbinger of spring. It makes me wonder what the people who choose the color were thinking when they made their choice. Were they feeling the same vibes that I’ve been feeling? Do they make the same associations between the colors and external forces that I do?

They probably do. In fact, after I published my first book, “Cosmically Chic,” Pantone collaborated with an author to produce a book called “Colorstrology.” I doubt that they would have published it if it wasn’t for the trail I blazed in the early 2000s by bringing fashion astrology to the mainstream. No one was doing what I was doing before my first book came out. I’m not exaggerating.

Anyway, I am optimistic about 2022, I’m glad to know that the people at the Pantone Institute are also feeling the same way. Perhaps I should reach out to them since we’re all feeling hopeful about what the future will bring. This isn’t just going to be a plain, old “periwinkle” year, it’s going to be a “Very Peri” year, both super and superlative. I am “very” sure of that!