When Baby New Year pops on the scene, what fashion statement will his swaddling garments make? That depends partly on color, at least if we can take seriously this New York Times fashion article, Pantone's Color of the Year Is....

At least one color authority, Pantone, has taken the plunge and announced its favorite color for 2008. [...] In a statement, Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, said: “Blue Iris brings together the dependable aspects of blue, underscored by a strong, soul-searching purple cast. Emotionally, it is anchoring and meditative with a touch of magic.”

Uhm.... Okay. Somehow I sense that Pantone realized "hey, no one else is doing this" and took the opportunity. Which is cool. But so what?

It's nearly tautological that colors come and go with fashion. But it's empirically interesting to ask which colors and why? For starters, is Pantone actually the leader it's posing to be, or does the designation of blue iris reflect the net leanings of fashion's myriad of tastes and designs?

There has indeed been a surge of blue on the runways in the last year, beginning last February with Raf Simons’s dresses and pantsuits, in an Yves Klein blue, for Jil Sander and extending into the spring 2008 collections with Nicolas Ghesquiere’s explosive floral prints for Balenciaga. Mr. Elbaz used a deep lagoon blue in his spring Lanvin show, and one found lighter but no less robust shades in collections by Marni and Chloé, and in the men’s lines of Prada and Alexander McQueen. Dolce & Gabbana called its new fragrance Light Blue. And JWT, the advertising and marketing company, just named blue as one of the top 10 trends for 2008, saying that “blue is the new green”...

Never mind all the name dropping. I think this is interesting because it suggests (albeit mildly) a catallactic understanding of trends--that trends, like market prices, can be traced to the points where individual actors make choices among alternatives. More on this to come.