It’s that time of year again, full of lists and predictions. One that always catches my eye is Pantone’s colour of the year, now in its twenty-fifth year.  Their colour of 2024 has just been announced as ‘Peach Fuzz’ (officially Pantone 13-1023). This choice does invoke the other senses more than previous choices.

This is quite a contrast with last year’s vibrant Viva Magenta, with a much gentler and more subtle colour described as a “soft, pinkish-orange” and “subtly sensual”. Pantone also describe the choice as “radiant with warmth and modern elegance” which “echoes our innate yearning for closeness and connection”. Previous colours of the year have been ‘Viva Magenta’, ‘Very Peri’, ‘Ultimate Gray’ and ‘Illuminating’, ‘Classic Blue’, and ‘Living Coral’ (which to my eyes doesn’t look a million miles away from Peach Fuzz).

It’s an interesting choice in the context of the different words of the year that have been pronounced by various dictionaries. Merriam-Webster have ‘authentic’ as their word of the year, based on searches of their website over the past year, and they write that this is partly due to a crisis of authenticity in the time of artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and post-truth. The dictionary definition is “real, actual, not false or imitation”.

This does seem relevant to current times. Other words on Merriam-Webster’s shortlist were ‘kibbutz’, ‘deadname’, ‘deepfake’, ‘dystopian’, and ‘doppelganger’. They also had ‘rizz’ on their shortlist, a word I had not come across until reading their list. ‘Rizz’ is slang for romantic appeal and charm and was chosen by Oxford University Press as their word of the year.

I think I need to bush up on my rizz while keeping my authenticity. However, I don’t think I will be wearing peach fuzz to make myself more attractive in the coming year. Happy 2024!