Colour is one of the most crucial elements in fashion and activewear design. It communicates emotions, represents trends, and influences consumer choices. However, ensuring consistency in colour across different fabrics, production batches, and materials can be challenging. This is where Pantone comes in.
Pantone is a global authority on colour, providing a standardised system that helps designers, manufacturers, and brands achieve colour accuracy. In this blog, we will explore what Pantone is, its importance in the fashion industry, and how sportswear designers can use it to create stunning activewear collections.
What is Pantone?
Pantone is a colour matching system widely used in various industries, including fashion, graphic design, interior design, and printing. Founded in 1962, Pantone developed the Pantone Matching System (PMS), a standardised colour reproduction system that assigns unique codes to specific colours. This system allows designers and manufacturers to ensure colour consistency across different materials and production processes to guarantee everything matches.
Each Pantone colour has a unique identification number, often accompanied by suffixes such as “C” (coated), “U” (uncoated), and “TCX” (textile cotton extended) to indicate its application on different materials.
Why is Pantone Important in Fashion Design?
1. Colour Consistency
Fashion designers work with different materials such as cotton, merino, polyester, and nylon. Each fabric absorbs dye differently, which can lead to huge colour variations. Using Pantone ensures that the colour remains consistent across all materials and production batches.
2. Global Standardisation
Fashion brands operate across different regions, working with manufacturers and suppliers worldwide. The Pantone system provides a universal language that ensures that a designer in New York can communicate the exact colour to a manufacturer in China without discrepancies.
3. Predicting and Setting Trends
Pantone is known for its Colour of the Year announcement, which influences trends across fashion, interior design, and marketing. Fashion designers often incorporate these trend colours into their collections to stay relevant and appealing to consumers.
4. Ease of Communication
Using Pantone colours simplifies communication between designers, fabric suppliers, and manufacturers. Instead of vague colour descriptions like “light blue” or “deep red,” designers can specify an exact Pantone code, ensuring precision and reducing errors.
How to Use Pantone in Fashion Design
1. Selecting Colour for a Collection
Designers begin by choosing a colour palette that aligns with the theme and mood of their collection. Pantone provides seasonal colour trend reports that can serve as inspiration. Once a palette is selected, designers assign Pantone codes to ensure consistency throughout the collection.
These Pantone References will be shared with each fabric mill, the factory and the trim and component supplier so thread, zips, trims, buttons can all match the main fabric colour.
2. Fabric and Dyeing Process
Once the Pantone colours are chosen, fabric suppliers use the Pantone Textile Colour System (such as Pantone TCX or TPG) to match dyes to the selected shades. Designers may request lab dips—small fabric swatches dyed to match the Pantone colour—to approve before full-scale production begins.
3. Digital and Print Applications
In addition to fabrics, Pantone colours are used in marketing materials, lookbooks, packaging, and branding elements. Ensuring that digital and printed media match the actual garments is essential for a cohesive brand image.
4. Collaboration with Manufacturers
When working with manufacturers, designers specify Pantone colours in technical packs (tech packs). These documents provide detailed information on colour codes, fabric types, stitching details, and measurements to ensure production aligns with the original design vision.
5. Incorporating Pantone’s Colour of the Year
Many designers incorporate Pantone’s Colour of the Year into their collections to align with current trends. For instance, when Pantone announced “Viva Magenta” as the Colour of the Year for 2023, many brands used variations of magenta in their designs, influencing everything from haute couture to streetwear.
Pantone in the Fashion Industry: Case Studies
1. High-Fashion Brands
Luxury brands such as Gucci, Prada, and Chanel use Pantone colours to maintain brand identity and ensure uniformity across their collections. They often reference Pantone trend reports to select seasonal hues.
2. Fast Fashion
Brands like Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo use Pantone to streamline production and quickly bring trend colours to market. Since fast fashion operates on a tight schedule, Pantone helps ensure quick and accurate colour reproduction.
3. Streetwear and Sportswear
Streetwear brands such as Supreme and sportswear giants like Nike and Adidas use Pantone to create signature colours for limited edition collections, collaborations, and branding consistency.
Tips for Fashion Designers Using Pantone
- Stay Updated with Pantone Trends – Follow Pantone’s trend reports and Colour of the Year announcements to create fashionable and marketable designs.
- Use Pantone Swatches – Invest in a Pantone swatch book (like the Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors guide) to ensure accurate colour selection.
- Request Lab Dips – Always approve lab dips before bulk production to avoid unexpected colour variations.
- Communicate Clearly – Include Pantone codes in your design briefs and tech packs to ensure smooth collaboration with manufacturers.
- Consider Digital Colours – Pantone offers digital solutions for designers using tools like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to match screen colours with fabric swatches.
At Blue Associates Sportswear, we use Pantone to standardise colour across all elements of each collection. We specify colour for every fabric, components, print, applique, zip, button, badge and thread. This way, we control the quality and make sure every aspect matches perfectly.
