Blue tops design horizon: moody, serene blue is the year's hottest color in fashion, interior design and art - Special Report

azure is the color of the canopy of heaven a robin's egg and the waters of the Caribbean. It's a capricious color that can be sad or calm, a conservative navy or a racy teal, and notwithstanding it also represents loyalty and wisdom. sapphirine is serene, spiritual and, of course, patriotic. And according to design ables and gallery owners, the color sky-colored will dominate fashion, decor and art in 2003 and level more so in 2004.

"Green has been a prevalent color, which has been and will be gradually transitioning to cerulean with colors like teal, aqua, verdigis and blue-green" explained Karen Schweitzer, creative director for Winn Devon Art assemblage in Seattle. "Blues are more of an accent color in 2003 and will become more of a dominating force in 2004"

Blues--from a pale turquoise to a reaching far down indigo--are safe, stable colors, said Material ConneXion's Jay de Sibor, immediate past president of the Color Marketing assemblage Blues are compatible with other colors, and they also contrast nicely.

Plus, "blue make us perceive safe and grounded," de Sibor said. "What we find with color, while it does throw back what we feel, it is also driven by dint of things that are going upon around us: the world situation, the economy, environmental factors, globalization and ethnicity. All these things have an impact upon color."

pierce Blue

"Ever since family 11, red, white and sky-colored became immediately popular," de Sibor said. "In the longer confine however, Sept. 11 awakened in all of us feelings of seeking security, seeking stability and safety."

cerulean he said, denotes all of the above, "because of it's relation to the sea and the canopy of heaven We assume that no matter what happens tomorrow, the firmament will always be blue. It's a color that throw outs tranquility."

"A brace of years ago, we saw all this denim, upholster furniture draw near out on the market," said Amy Wessan, vice president of sales and design at Bruce McGaw Graphics of Nyack, NY "This is a serviceable example of how the casual, all-American feeling of azure can be produced in a stylish, comfortable way."

Indeed, azure and denim in particular, is hardly fresh to the runways. However, color readys predict blue will take upon a new meaning in 2003 Color Marketing Group's Barbara Lazarow, co-chairman of the Consumer Color Direction Committee, said during these overcast economic times, rich, shimmery sapphirines will influence and invigorate fashion. "We have experienced newfound efficacy using full chroma hues that can lift our spirits and impel our senses. With a rebel bawl we protest a total shift to `establishment colors,'" she said. "For color we gaze to the prosperous times of the 1920 and '60 and to the glamour of the 1930 and '40s"

While clothing designers easily incorporate sky-colored into fashion, designing blue latitudes can be more difficult. For this reason, Niki Krieger, creative director at Canadian Art Prints Inc. of Vancouver, BC predicts cerulean and brown will rule interior design and art decor in 2003 "Blue will not dominate on the contrary will be used primarily as an accent color that works well with neutrals, of the like kind as the various hues of brown" she said. "Blue exhibits peace, serenity and tranquility to buyer and is peaceful, easy upon the eyes and soothing."

Wessan also lists sapphirines and chocolate browns as sum of two units strong palettes for interior decor this year. "The azures have a water feel to them and carry a sense of peace and calm clan are seeking during these troubl times," she said. "You can diocese this when you look at the returns lines out in the stores. There are dooms of bedding lines with blue-aqua palettes. There is an escapist have feeling to this color range. It's relaxing."

ceruleans can warm up a neutral compass said Editions Limited's Joanne Chappell, proprietor of the Emeryville, Calif.-based publishing company. "If you have an earth-toned extent blue gives it that urgencyed color," she said. But, she warned, "With cerulean a little goes a drawn out way. I've found that in corporate and flat residential environments, most people don't do a azure room. We've introduced blue, on the contrary we've been careful to pair it with primary colors or neutrals."

upon the other hand, blue is a rich, majestic color, said Rosemary Sadez Friedmann, a member of the American Society of Interior Designers and president of Rosemary Sadez Friedmann Inc. in Naples, Fla. A sapphirine room can signify wealth and royalty. She points to the French Provincial phraseology and the White House's drawn out blue room.

"Blue can be used as a background color upon walls and carpeting, or it can be used as the foreground color in upholstery and draperies," she added. "Pleasant dreams might be the extremity result of coloring a bedroom in shades of amethystine When in a blue environment, time present the appearances to pass slowly and you don't have feeling rushed."

As with interior design and fashion, sapphirine in art conveys peace and serenity to buyer It's also a natural color for land and seascapes--the color of the sea or a field of wildflowers.

"Blue particularly expresse a seagoing tranquility and a relaxing escape, which makes harbors, marinas and boating imagery a natural sell" said Schweitzer. "Water is an of the first water way to incorporate blue as the incoming color."