‘Mocha Mousse’ Is Pantone’s 2025 Color of the Year
Drum roll please — Pantone’s 2025 Color of the Year is Mocha Mousse.
Twenty-six years after the Pantone Color Institute started singling out a standout shade each year, it has landed on a milk chocolatey hue that appeals to three of the four senses.
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Aside from being easy on the eyes, Mocha Mousse appeals to our sense of taste and scent, according to Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. As an indicator of how color trends are an intercontinental cultural phenomenon, Pantone will be spotlighting this warm brown in public spaces in New York, Shanghai, Mumbai and London. To kick that off, the London Eye will light up the city’s skyline in Mocha Mousse Thursday night. The 443-foot Ferris wheel is one of the world’s tallest.
During an interview, Eiseman played up how browns have been gaining traction with fashion designers beyond the classicism that they are known for. Vice President Kamala Harris, who has frequently worn a dark brown Gabriela Hearst pantsuit and a khaki-colored Chloe one in recent months, has helped to up the shade’s fashion appeal. Cate Blanchett, Alexa Chung, Jourdan Dunn, Precious Lee and Paige Audrey-Marie Hurd have each made red carpet appearances wearing versions of brown ensembles in the past two weeks.
During trips to Brazil and Italy in the last few months, Eiseman encountered more conversations about using brown as a fashion color, despite the countries’ cultural differences. Having already decided on Mocha Mousse, Eiseman said, “Of course, I couldn’t tell them what I already knew. But it made us feel we hit it right. There is a lot of conversation about the brown family.”
While “Mocha Mousse” might be synonymous with “delicious,” the shade was chosen for its evocativeness, implication of wonderful taste, multi-sensory appeal and versatility, Eiseman said. ”If you think of it in dried flowers and other very natural settings, it can appear to be very organic. But at the same time in fashion, the whole brown family has taken on this very elegant aspirational quality,” she said. “Of course, with all the beautiful leathers and faux furs — before it was real fur — brown always delivers a very elegant statement,” Eiseman said.
Unlike when people frequently described brown as “earthy” in Pantone’s word association studies, that impression started to change with the 2000 movie “Chocolat,” and through other cultural cues. Eiseman flagged Le Vian’s brown diamonds for helping to portray the hue in a new light and Michael Kors for helping to pioneer brown as an evening option by sending a brown satin skirt and sequin top down the runway years before others. Mocha Mousse — Pantone 17-1230 — is also translatable for accessories, beauty products, home décor and other nonfashion items.
More akin to milk chocolate than dark chocolate, Mocha Mousse blends well with unexpected combinations like hot pinks, Eiseman said. That versatility should extend its shelf life, so to speak. While cabinetmakers and contractors routinely use a variety of brown wood materials, designers are starting to use the color in organza, tulles and other luxe fabrics, according to Eiseman.
But the 2025 Color of the Year doesn’t just conjure up scents of chocolate; it is also the same shade as cacao powder, a popular recipe ingredient with chefs of all abilities now, and of course, coffee. Beyond the flavorful connotation, Mocha Mousse has glamour and sensorial warmth, which makes it “very inviting and tempting to taste and touch,” Eiseman said. “It’s also harmonious. When you see the color, it’s not in-your-face, distracting, or overwhelming. It’s just very comforting and comfortable.”
As for whether that harmoniousness is meant to imply racial harmony, Eiseman said it could partially be interpreted that way. (Pantone has offered a slew of beautiful skin tones for years.) More than anything, Mocha Mousse signals a moment of indulgence, which many people are in search of after what has been “an exhausting year,” Eiseman said. “We just need something — take a bite of chocolate or have that coffee to take a moment for ourselves.”
“Sophisticated, lush and unpretentious,” the idea is that Mocha Mousse will transform the perception of brown being “humble and grounded to being aspirational and luxe,” Eiseman said. There is also exclusive merchandise for Mocha Mousse items through collaborations with Motorola, Joybird fabrics, Pura, Wix Studio, Libratone, Spoonflower, Ipsy, Society6 and Ultrafabrics. Motorola’s two Mocha Mousse-inspired devices feature a vegan leather inlay made of coffee grounds.
Looking ahead, Eiseman is counting on Mocha Mousse to have longevity and to extend the interest in Pantone’s 2024 Color of the Year — Peach Fuzz — into next year, since the two shades blend well together. In fact, Eiseman expects Mocha Mousse to be popular for several years. “Once people discover it and that it works so well with so many other things, it’s really going to ring a lot of bells,” she said.
Launch Gallery: All of Pantone’s Color of the Year Predictions Since 2000
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