Yuck: 'Deep Lichen Green' is Pantone's Top Color for Fall 2013

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Emerald might be the color of the year, but this Fall, the top pigment goes to a more somber shade of green called "Deep Lichen." The plant that lends its name to the color consists of "fungus that contains photosynthetic algal cells" and "typically forms a low crustlike, leaflike, or branching growth," according to our resident biologist. So this fall, we will all be wearing crustlike fungal algae.

Despite that questionable image, its really not that different from army green, which frequently has a strong presence in American design, at least. Pantone Color Institutes's executive director, Leatrice Eiseman, explains the choice, "What surprised me this fall was the progression of yellows and greens. This is the deepest, mossiest green and it is such a great color that counterbalances everything else."

Green sweeps a lot of the palette, which Eiseman explains is designed to reflect the "forest or the woods in the fall when the leaves have fallen" when "there is such a gorgeous mélange of color." That includes "Emerald," "Linden Green," which Eisemen specifically notes probably won't look good on you; "Carafe," a.k.a. brown; and Turbulence, a grey-green that is anything but turbulent.

Now, if you don't want to walk around looking like a plant person, there's always "Samba" (red), Kai (orange), and the very, very bright, "Vivacious."
· Pantone's Top Colors for Fall 2013 [WWD]
· Angelina Jolie is Responsible for Pantone's Color of the Year [Racked]
· Snooze: Monaco Blue Is Pantone's Top Color for Spring 2013 [Racked]