Why Navy Blue Is the Real Colour of the Year

According to Pantone, the colour of 2021 is actually two colours: PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray + PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminating. One is grey and one is yellow and they are, according to the company, "A marriage of colour conveying a message of strength and hopefulness that is both enduring and uplifting". I'm not sure an entire year – 12 months of waking up, going to the shops, being on the computer, not getting an Ocado slot, going to the bigger shops – can be summarised by any colour(s), but that's what Pantone's job is: lots of people in lab coats sat around a table talking about colours and what they mean.

So yellow and grey. Fine. But no, not fine. Pantone is wrong, because the colour of the year is neither grey nor yellow. It is actually navy blue.

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Florals in spring, men wearing navy... groundbreaking. Except that it is exactly this consistent, solid unobtrusiveness that makes it the perfect shade to navigate during these – what's it again? – these Unprecedented Times. Navy is old reliable, it is Mr Menswear, it is the colour of a million unremarkable suits and a million beautiful ones. After months and months (and months) of at-home dressing, it is the colour crutch that can be relied upon.

Tom Hardy wearing navy in Cannes, which is a good place to wear it

At the start of spring last year, experimenting with getting dressed from home was fun. It was exciting. It was a pair of JW Anderson multi-coloured clogs; a Casablanca silk shirt; a rare restaurant t-shirt and the 'Moby Dick of trousers'. Loosened from the shackles of commuting and office etiquette, many of us were allowed to lose our minds a bit with the clothes that we wore around the house. But, much like baking, walking, watching legacy television programmes from the early two thousands, and generally sustaining myself, the novelty of getting dressed has worn off. I want clothes that are stylish, simple and uncomplicated. If summer was my lockdown Liberace season, then this winter is my Steve Jobs. I need a uniform to survive in (and maybe invent the new iPhone and make one billion pounds?) and that uniform has become entirely based around a certain shade of dark blue.

The beauty of monochrome dressing is that what it denies you in colour diversity, it opens up plenty of options in texture. As autumn has drawn into winter, I've found an almost-accidental uniform of Nike tracksuit bottoms or Universal Works cords, both in navy. Uniqlo cashmere, Quaker Marine Supply fishing knit or Sunspel lambswool jumper, all in navy. A North Face fleece or a Descente Allterrain puffer jacket if I venture out of the house, with a Universal Works beanie in... navy. Combining elements of British workwear, Japanese Gorpcore and lazy sportswear in one convenient package. The few times I've braved the commute to the office, it's a navy suit that I've reach for instinctively. It doesn't matter the material, it all comes together when the shade is the same.

One of the other beauties of navy is that it is completely resistant to insane lockdown purchases. Unlike that leopard print Kapital fleece or Acne floral shirt that seemed like a good idea at the time, you can be sure that whatever you buy in navy blue is going to stay resolutely In Fashion forever. Take Signor Navy himself, Giorgio Armani, a man who for 45 years has been championing the shade in all its various and luxurious forms and functions, practicing what he preaches on the Milan catwalks with a personal style that is, summer or winter, 1985 or 2020, resolutely dark blue.

There'll be a time where clashing shades and weird trousers and painterly silks make sense again, but now is a time for playing the outfit hits. Navy, navy, navy and more navy.

Good for now. Good forever.

If that doesn't convince you, then take a look at the face of this Pantone-grey cat. Then look at the calm, ready-for-anything face of Giorgio 'Navy' Armani. Case closed.

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