From catwalks to retail - add a splash of colour with Digital Lavender

Discover how Digital Lavender, WGSN x Coloro’s Colour of the Year 2023, is dominating fashion across all categories.

We’ve been highlighting the rise of Digital Lavender, a colour now set to reach its full potential. The pastel purple has been used in tech for its sensoriality, but we spotted it on the catwalks even two years ago, showing its versatility across industries. WGSN tracks the rise of the colour since then.

Purples rule the catwalks

We forecasted Digital Lavender in 2021, when purple was one of the fastest-rising colours YoY on the A/W 21/22 catwalks (+16%), with cooler levels such as Digital Lavender +55% YoY. WGSN’s catwalk analytics data also shows this colour gaining traction on the S/S 22 catwalks, with pastel purple making up 57.2% of the mix (+8.2ppt YoY), rising to 61.6% (+4.3ppt YoY) for S/S 23. 

Digital Lavender has shown a steady increase up to now. In womenswear, look to Jil Sander, Brandon Maxwell and Ester Manas for S/S 23. Meanwhile from Milan and Paris, the A/W 23/24 menswear shows featured brands such as Gucci, Fendi, Solid Homme and Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, all of which embraced this pastel for the season. Gucci’s combination with yellow, in particular, is “a personal favourite” of Clare Smith, Colour Strategist at WGSN, tells Marie Claire. 

The colour narrative

For 2023, expect Digital Lavender to move into more gender-inclusive collections, but also be used as a transitional and transseasonal colour. While it is already a firm favourite within the youth sector, Gen Z will continue to push this colour as their spending power grows, and a new narrative around purple will take hold. For youth apparel look to brands such as Privacy Policy and Stine Goya.

2023 will be all about showcasing Digital Lavender, using the shade to its true potential and moving away from the narrative of pastels only being for S/S. As consumers seek more longevity from the products they buy and the colours they buy into, the year ahead will call for versatility; Digital Lavender offers a fresh direction that is transseasonal, wearable and gender-inclusive.

Download Top Trends for 2023 & Beyond for more trend forecasting content by our experts at WGSN. Alternatively, explore this shade and other key colours for the year in the latest episode of our Create Tomorrow podcast, Why Digital Lavender is the Colour of 2023.