Why is everyone obsessed with hot pink right now?

Fiery pink has received a Gen-Z update following the pandemic

When Valentino’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli showcased the brand’s Fall/Winter 2022 collection in March earlier this year, little did the fashion world know that it would be engulfed by its fiery pink offerings. We’ve seen the colour on almost every celebrity by now, from Zendaya and Anne Hathaway to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Masoom Minawala. Pantone even added Piccioli’s ‘Pink PP’ to its official colour range.

“It’s a colour you can’t ignore. We’ve seen it on the runway, on celebrities and now it’s trickling down to retailers as well,” says Meghna Goyal, the founder of clothing label Summer Somewhere, whose latest ‘drop’ includes dresses in this hue of fiery pink. While India’s connection with ‘rani’ pink dates back to centuries, largely as the hue of marital bliss, the updated version of ‘Barbie pink,’ as the world knows it, is one colour that everyone is lining up to wear this year.

Post-pandemic pink

While as a brand, Valentino has always been associated with red, Piccioli managed to find a new trademark that would resonate with the millennial and Gen Z generations, especially after two years of being locked up and isolated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The world has been through so much trauma over the past two years. Everyone’s perspective has changed and they’re becoming more experimental and accepting of brighter hues into their closets,” says Rhea Bhattacharya, the founder of Drawn, who launched her clothing label in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. “Pink is such a vibrant and fun colour. Somewhere it got a bad rep for being too feminine, but now so many designers have presented different ways to work the colour that everyone wants to have a go at it, whether it is a bubblegum pink tulle skirt or a hot pink power suit. At Drawn, we’ve always been big fans of the colour pink so we will always include it, season after season,” Bhattacharya adds.

Like Bhattacharya, Divya Aggarwal, the co-founder of homegrown athleisure label KZ07, also believes that the new normal is all about experimenting with colours and silhouettes. “Ever since the pandemic, there has been a lot of sadness and a general feeling of ‘greyness’ all around us. People are now in full bloom after a long time and pink represents that energy of happiness and vibrancy,” says Aggarwal, whose latest collection of activewear includes a lot of pink. Talking about the clothes, she explains that being trend-focused sets the right mood for each season and collection. “We tried to incorporate the energy of the colour pink in this collection as it represents something brighter and bolder,” she explains.

Gender-defying pink

For as long as we can remember, pink has always been associated with femininity. But in the times when the thick lines of gender are slowly blurring, fiery pink became the rebellious choice of colour for men. At the 2020 Grammy Awards, American rapper Lil Nas X made headlines for wearing a hot pink cowboy ensemble. Sebastian Stan countered his hyper-masculine image from Pam and Tommy by dressing up head-to-toe in Valentino pink at this year’s MET Gala. Blink-182 drummer Travis Baker added a pop of pink on the red carpet at the Oscars this year, and let’s not forget Harry Styles’ furry pink attire at Coachella.

The idea that pink is meant for women has also been flipped over by celebrity stylist Akshay Tyagi, whose recent collaboration with accessory label Tann-ned tried to bridge the gap between extremities of the gender. By teaming up with designers Rakshit Singh, Konpal Batra and Ritika Gupta, Tyagi created fluidity that met halfway with a collection of bags and accessories accented with a pop of pink. While having a bright colour was a criteria for Tyagi when designing this collection, it was more of a visual call back when it came to using pink and green which we now associate with Valentino and Bottega Venetta. “One of my fears was that is it was going to be too close to something that is already so iconic? But our collection was done differently in terms of combination of colours as well,” he says, referring to the colours used as a ‘watermelon’ combination.

Society has symbolically associated certain colours with a particular gender–blue for boys and pink for girls. And while gender-reveal parties still go viral over pink and blue confetti, such compartmentalisation of colours wasn’t the case in the 19th century. “Originally, pink was a colour that reflected masculinity. Men were seen wearing pink as it was a powerful colour. Over the years it might have been associated with being feminine but in 2022, everyone is wearing it loud and proud,” says Aggarwal.

Loud and proud is exactly what we’d call hot pink if it had a personality. With the severity of this colour, it lends a rebellious streak against societal norms. “It’s a powerful colour and makes a statement for all the right reasons,” insists Bhattacharya. No wonder United States senator Elizabeth Warren wore a hot pink jacket to protest in front of the Supreme Court when a leaked draft looking to overturn Roe v. Wade was published. “It’s a versatile colour that can make you feel bold with an all-pink monochrome ensemble or elegant with a subtle addition of accessories,” says Goyal. So whether you take cues from Dua Lipa’s sexy head-to-toe pink look or Justin Beiber’s hot pink beanie, be prepared for this colour to take over your closet.

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