When Pantone color experts declared Cloud Dancer their Color of the year 2026they predicted that the shadow would bring about a kind of cool calm.
But the choice of Cloud Dancer, which Pantone called a “wavy” white, instead sparked heated debate.
People online have criticized this shade for being “dark” and “boring” and possibly not being a color at all. Hearing a color description read during TODAY Presentation December 4, Al Roker replied “also known as white.”
Others condemned Cloud Dancer as tone-deaf and “whitewash”, expressing other controversial opinions.
Read on to learn all about the controversy over Pantone's 2026 Color of the Year.
What is Pantone's color of the year?
The Pantone Color Institute has chosen the Color of the Year every year since late 1999, when it named cerulean blue as the Color of the Year 2000. WWD reported. He called the soft blue hue the “Color of the Millennium” and said it instills hope.
According to the institute's color experts, they “scour the world for new color influences” to choose their star shade each year. Pantone website.
Each year's color is influenced by everything from movies and fashion to art, travel and more. The colors are also inspired by lifestyle trends, new technologies, sports and socio-economic conditions.
Additionally, a Pantone spokesperson told TODAY.com, “Pantone's Color of the Year selection process is driven by the color/colors that flow throughout the design and connect it to the zeitgeist of the time. The emotional resonance inherent in a color is key to the selection process.”
Other companies such as Benjamin Moore and WGSN also select an annual color of the year. The paint company chose Silhouette AF-655“Luxurious burnt umber with subtle notes of charcoal” as the 2026 Color of the Year. WGSN chose Transformative Turquoise, a color “for a period of change and redirection.”
What is the color of 2026 according to Pantone?
When Pantone announced Cloud Dancer as its 2026 color choice, it described the color as an “wavy, balanced white” “imbued with a sense of serenity.”
Like a blank slate, the “ethereal” Cloud Dancer is a symbol of “a calming influence in a frenetic society” and signifies our desire to start over, the company said.
The color also hints at “our search for balance between our digital future and our core need for human connection,” said Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute.
Why is the choice controversial?
Although Cloud Dancer was described by Pantone as a serene color, it caused a strong reaction after it was chosen as the color. Color of the year 2026.
Although some people, including wedding planners on TikTok — celebrated their choice, many others found Cloud Dancer strangely dark or worse.
“Your choices are as inspired as mayonnaise,” one person wrote next to Pantone's announcement of Cloud Dancer. on Instagram.
“Pantonedeaf,” another added, while one person commented: “It feels like these choices and the content created around them were conceived in a vacuum, completely removed from our collective social and political present. I hope a brand that has so much cultural influence doesn't operate with such a glaring blind spot.”
“This makes for inedible chicken,” another noted.
When a Washington Post reporter asked for feedback on Cloud Dancer in TikTok video, users couldn't help themselves.
One person called the color “dark” and “dystopian,” writing: “The color of the year is not a color. Just another example of how the life is being sucked out of us all.”
Another said the “lack of color” is a “recession indicator”, joking: “Pantone can't afford color this year and neither can anyone else.”
Headlines throughout the year reported growth white nationalism in the United States, many critics found Cloud Dancer's choice to be either “tone-deaf” or biased.
“SO… you all sat down and had a few meetings. Discussed some ideas. And in all of those meetings, not one of you… at this moment when white supremacy is in the news every day… thought, 'Maybe now isn't the right time for this,'” one person wrote on the page Instagram Pantone.
Has the “White Clan Robe” been taken? someone else added.
How did Pantone respond to the controversy?
Pressman addressed rumors that white being named the color of the year might raise some eyebrows in an interview with the publication. Washington Post.
“Skin tones weren’t taken into account at all,” Pressman said, noting that Pantone had asked similar questions about other colorways in the past. “With Peach Fuzz and then Mocha Mousse, people weighed in and asked if it had anything to do with skin tone. And I think we thought, “Wow, really?” Because for us, at the most basic level, it’s about what can people looking for this color hope to respond to?”
During the presentation on December 4, Pantone president Skye Kelly said she knew Cloud Dancer would be a “pretty controversial” choice.
Pantone's choice, she said in a videotaped speech. www.vrenture.com/“sparks a conversation about color that everyone can participate in.”
She added: “At Pantone, we don't dictate this conversation, we facilitate it.”
In a statement to TODAY.com, a Pantone spokesperson also explained the meaning behind the color's name.
“Cloud Dancer visually represents a space for creativity, like a blank page ready to make your inspiration come true,” the rep said in part. “It gives us the opportunity to become receptive to both what could be and what lies ahead, as Cloud Dancer suggests the inner peace we feel after eliminating the noise around us.”
Explaining that the title plays an important role in “conjuring up feelings,” the spokesperson said Cloud Dancer “reflects a universal experience: Wherever we are in the world, we all look to floating clouds for inspiration, wonder and awakening the imagination.”
Adding, “Just by looking up, we are united by the drifting lightness of clouds. This versatility is a big part of why Cloud Dancer was chosen as Pantone's Color of the Year 2026.”
