TRENDS: Going Green by Cristina Morozzi

Green, a color associated with vitality and change, only recently with nature, is back in the spotlight in Fashion for Spring 2022. Learn more about in this article by Cristina Morozzi.

Michel Pastoureau – historian, anthropologist, and leading expert on colors and their symbolic meaning – writes in his book Le petit livre des couleurs that green represents everything that moves, changes and varies. It was only back in the 19th century that green became associated with nature.

After a lengthy hiatus, green is back in vogue for Spring 2022 in both fashion and accessories. In interior design, where warm browns, reds and oranges predominate along with natural tones of beige, green was really only found in outdoor seating along with blue. Then in 2020, Cappellini designed a chair upholstered in green fabric, which was a bit of a provocation. 

Green’s recent comeback is associated with nature. Women’s spring fashion proposals feature lots of green, and the 23 February issue of Vanity Fair calls its dedicated fashion service “Orticola” (“horticulture”), with spring clothing featuring plant patterns where green is dominant. This trend is part of society’s commitment to defending nature, inspired also by a variety of publications dedicated to plants, including Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence by Stefano Mancuso, professor of Botany at the University of Florence and Alessandra Viola; The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture by Emanuele Coccia, an anthropologist and lecturer at the Université des Hautes Etudes in Paris.

Plants and greenery also caught our attention during the pandemic, especially as they started taking over our surroundings as humans reduced activity during lockdowns. Green is also expected to continue playing a leading role, thanks to EU nature and biodiversity rules, and increased attention on vertical gardens and ‘green’ buildings.

Cristina Morozzi