When we think about magic, we always think of the ancient and the fantastic —the archaic rites of Babylon and Egypt, the alchemy and witchcraft of the 16th century or the novels of Tolkien and Pullman—but for Autumn Winter 27/28 we want to explore the idea of ‘modern magic’, something that exists in our everyday lives; the thread that runs through the unseen, the quiet pulse between what is known and what is imagined. Magic is not archaic; it is cyclical and eternal. As Arthur C Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Our lighter than expected autumn winter colour palette offers a refreshing, ‘magical’ twist on seasonal design, capturing a sense of balance and lightness that modern consumers crave amid fast-paced lifestyles and overstimulation.
Magic begins to stir, rising from the deep darkness of the earth itself. It is the pure enchantment of creation, the emergence of form from nothing, drawn from dust and soil by a primal force.
This is a palette that rises up from the warmth of the earth into the cool of the air.. It is a barely-there family of colour, perfect for communicating weightlessness in an elegant, effortless way.
Colour becomes the trace of the process, the testimony of perpetual change.
To design with colour is to design with time. Each tone is a potion containing the mystery of creation, the instant when matter chooses to become beauty.
The crepuscular onset of dusk, then nightfall inspires these four dark shades. A moonless near black, an inky navy, a nightfall forest green and a shimmering deep turquoise help refine our sense of the magical power of darkness.
As day and night find their balance, a quiet alchemy takes place. The palette of Equinox emerges, blending stillness with slow enchantment, deftly moving between light and shadow, standing on the threshold between seasons.
This quartet acts as a foundation, providing an anchor for the rest of the palette, grounding brights and creating a deep, intense contrast for the rest of this magical colour group.
Beneath our feet lies a world we rarely pause to acknowledge, whose tones are more than colours; they are signals of the Earth’s ongoing alchemy, reminders that beauty often begins in the most unassuming places.
Abracadabra: the word that creates what it names. Since ancient times, it has been an invocation and an amulet, a sound that turned air into energy, thought into form and colours into magical vibrations.
