Instagram-famous skincare packaging, designer runways, and red carpet gowns have moved on from millennial pink, the hue that captivated and coddled “girlbosses” through the late 2010s. Instead, make way for Gen Z yellow. But can a generation famous for its fractured individualism really unite behind the color of caution tape?
Gen Z yellow is similar to one of Pantone’s Colors of the Year for 2021, “illuminating,” a dose of canary meant to herald brighter, post-pandemic days. So it makes sense spring 2023 runways such as Alexander McQueen and Moschino featured the color. (Although the history of Gen Z yellow goes all the way back to 2017, when the writer Haley Nahman coined it in an essay on the now defunct blog Man Repeller.)
