Gen Z's Bold Color Shift: Why Black Is Losing Its Fashion Grip

“I own one black piece of clothing, a 2019 Issey Miyake winter coat that I have never worn — shock,” says Abigale Masters, a 25-year-old content creator based in London. “The same goes for neutrals.” Masters — who spends an average of £1,500 on clothes per month — showcases her technicolor wardrobe on TikTok and Instagram, often spotlighting madcap designs from the likes of Ashley Williams, Chopova Lowena and Loewe. Her look, though unique, is exemplary of a burgeoning palette shift spearheaded by Gen Z — and perhaps soon, Gen Alpha — toward highly saturated, haphazardly matched dressing. Recently, Masters snaffled a vintage fuschia dress (Look 11) from the Prada Fall/Winter 2018 collection to match her hot pink hair. “It was one of the very few moments in luxury fashion history where neon was the forefront of every design,” she says. Masters’s comments are interesting. While praising Prada has long been a signal of taste among fashion consumers, her broader dismissal of wearing all black was, until recently, a fashion faux pas. Read More Behind the scenes of Chopova Lowena’s ‘sensory overload’ fashion Super Bowl The cult London brand staged a loud, scented, NFL-inspired show for Spring/Summer 2026. Here’s how they pulled it together. Once a display of restraint and a meticulous attention to detail, black-on-black (or ‘all neutral’) may, according to early signals, no longer hold the blanket cultural cachet it once did for consumers under 30. The high street has caught on to this Gen Z-led evolution. According to retail intelligence firm EDITED, UK arrivals of black knitwear in the final quarter of 2025 experienced an across-the-board reduction at Zara, H&M, Mango, Pull&Bear and Bershka. The further caveat was that where millennial-favored brands such as Mango invested more in “polished” colors, such as brown (up 221% year-on-year), the Gen Z-ingratiated H&M upped colors like red (up 80%) and pink (up 33%). Luxury designers are also backing the growth of color, confirms Krista Corrigan, senior retail analyst at EDITED. “Consumers should prepare for an influx of brighter colors in 2026. Designers are moving toward color clashing, with vibrant shades like cherry reds, hot pinks, rich purples and chartreuse greens seen at Valentino, Miu Miu and Prada.” “I think Gen Z is freer and more independent. TikTok and Instagram have greatly affected what they see and wear. They’re adverse to subscribing to ‘these are the trends that you have to wear right now,’ or ‘these are the colors that you have to wear,’” says retail consultant Robert Burke. In a similar vein, Gen Alpha are “even more adventurous and almost go absolutely against being subscribed to a certain look”. Buyers, merchandisers and brands should pay attention. Per data analytics firm Euromonitor, Gen Z makes up nearly a quarter of the global population, and the cohort’s income growth is soaring. “Fifty-four percent of this generation resides in Asia-Pacific and North America, and more than 1.3 million are projected to earn over $250,000 by the end of [tax year] 2025,” says Euromonitor’s head of luxury goods Fflur Roberts. “That [earnings] figure in North America is expected to grow more than fivefold over the next decade.” As the generation driving internet culture today, Gen Z is also influencing the millennial cohort to inject more color into their wardrobes, Burke adds. The rub? If plain-old black is off the cards, buyers and retailers — many of whom rely on a steady supply of black SKUs and carryover styles — need to drastically adjust their merchandising and buying plans. The new black Part of the issue lies in marketing to a generation that prides itself on standing out. “While black will always remain an important foundation, I also believe it offers limited opportunity for differentiation,” says Stavros Karelis, buying and founding director of concept store Machine-A. “Most brands today operate within a shared color vocabulary, but some execute it with far more confidence and clarity,’ he adds, citing Martine Rose, Willy Chavarria and Kiko Kostadinov, alongside Gen Z-founded labels Yaku and Charlie Constantinou. Still, change is afoot. “Even designers traditionally associated with darker palettes, such as Rick Owens, now offer remarkably sophisticated color stories within their collections,” Karelis says. He points to Prada as a leading innovator in color, and how it moves through the market. The brand and its sister label Miu Miu offer a playbook for purveying shades that Gen Z favor. Chartreuse, a popular hue the past two seasons, is a case in point, cropping up at Alaïa, Dries Van Noten and Chopova Lowena SS26 alike. On the shop floor and online, this embrace of louder shades tracks. “Over the past few seasons, we’ve seen Gen Z — and increasingly Gen Alpha, via parents and gifting — move away from defaulting to black or beige as a safe option,” says Bosse Myhr, Selfridges’s buying director for men’s, women’s and childrenswear. “For Gen Z, [black] can sometimes feel anonymous, or even conservative.” Similarly, at Harrods, Clemmie Harris, head of buying for contemporary, sport and essentials, has seen bright shades “take center stage”, with green, yellow, red and pink each “having a real moment”. Hot mess Behind the numbers, there’s a cultural shift. EDITED’s Corrigan pinpoints a dismissal of the “quiet luxury-inspired palettes favored by millennials” among Gen Zs, who instead opt for a less polished approach to dressing. “These consumers are digital natives who view their online and offline identities as interconnected and fluid,” she explains, highlighting the importance of self-expression and creative freedom over traditional status symbols. As such, dressing in muted tones, or with the IYKYK subtlety typical of, say, Phoebe Philo or Lemaire, doesn’t hold the same cachet. This pushback on self-curation has manifested in, first and foremost, a distinctly Gen Z color wheel — sherbet yellow, Cadbury purple, neon green, or any color pimple patch brand Starface uses in its marketing. Pantone Color Institute executive director Leatrice Eiseman explains the theory behind these kinds of pairings and schemes. “Today’s mantra for Gen Z is largely about individuality. By utilizing bright or saturated color, that expression is even bolder,” she affirms. “The use of complementary colors — as in purple and yellow — is a perfect example. Purple is rendered even more purple when next to its complement of yellow.” And this concept works across the color wheel, Eiseman adds, noting other combinations, such as fiery red opposite turquoise and vivid orange complemented by royal blue. Beyond the characteristically Gen Z color wheel, there is also a short-circuited nostalgia for previous hit colors. Corrigan observes our newfound obsession with 2016, the tail end to Instagram’s messier days when the annual Pantone shades were rose quartz (a millennial pink) and serenity (a baby shower blue). As for Gen Alpha, Corrigan foresees the kind of palettes from Fortnite and Minecraft to sway fashion. What that will look like is hard to say, but if Brat green was 2024’s answer to Gen Z catnip, then Gen Alpha (associated with AI slop, Prime energy drinks and brain rot) could provide something even more visually jarring. Loud luxury and the vintage effect Sara Camposarcone, 29, is a Toronto-based content creator, and one of many Gen Z cuspers uniquely positioned to notice the luxury players tapping in or pulling back on the technicolor regime. For her, appeal lies in loud luxury — “a hybrid trend incorporating not only bold colors, but more traditional markers of craft and quality, like voluminous silhouettes and texture.” Camposarcone’s favorite labels are currently Ashley Williams, Nicklas Skovgaard, Simone Rocha, Vaquera, Comme des Garçons and Junya Watanabe. “They’re not afraid of a funky print or an exaggerated silhouette — and that’s what I love about them,” she says. A seasoned thrifter with a visually chaotic approach to styling, Camposarcone often can’t find what she’s looking for via retail. In fact, a lack of color and flamboyance in stores — particularly over the last few years amid the quiet luxury boom — has driven Gen Zs to shop luxury secondhand, analysts agree. “For new, young luxury consumers, buying vintage and resale is a much more natural way to shop luxury than it is for older luxury consumers, and part of the appeal of this is rooted in seeking out more flamboyant looks that speak of an interesting and evolved personal style,” says Emily Gordon-Smith, content director of trend intelligence firm Stylus. Instagram content Provided they can be agile, luxury brands could better harness this shopper. Per Stylus, Gen Z accounts for an estimated 20% of total luxury revenues, and along with Gen Alpha, its spending is projected to make up a third of the entire luxury market by 2030. The concern, however, is that luxury sales to Gen Z shoppers fell between 4% and 6% in 2024, compared to a 1% to 3% drop overall. “It was far simpler [for brands] to appeal to their older millennial peers — whose idea of luxury was built upon traditional qualities of exclusivity via waitlists and drop queues, logo-mania, and the stealth wealth looks of The Row,” says Gordon-Smith. The takeaway is that it’s not just about hamming up the palette, but considering how that might tie in with a more hodge-podge — as opposed to hypebeast — sense of style. “I think we’ll see just more influence from vintage on luxury brands,” says Burke. “Fashion also trickles up.” Designers, your move.