Pantone 2026 - White: Beauty, Power, and Fascism

Let’s talk about white. The color we see everywhere, the one we think of as clean, simple, timeless—but also, maybe, the darkest color of all.

White is all over art, fashion, and design. Pantone even named it the color of the year. On the surface, it feels elegant and pure. But dig a little deeper, and it gets messy.

Back in the 17th century, design was all about opulence—Rococo, Baroque, fancy ornaments everywhere. Wearing white or filling your space with it was a way to show off wealth and status. By the 20th century, ideas of equality from the French Revolution started shaking things up. Then there was James Whistler, who famously painted white on white in galleries, basically poking fun at the old elite art style. It was provocative, but people loved it—and now, nearly all galleries are white.

White has always carried meaning beyond just looking nice. In ancient cultures, it meant divinity and ritual. In Renaissance Europe, it showed you could afford to keep your clothes clean. And, perhaps more importantly, it drew lines—who belonged and who didn’t.

It even shows up in politics. “Le Corbusier, un fascisme français”was an famous architect who designed everything in white and had visions of a completely colorless Manhattan and Paris. He’s one of the granddaddies of modernism and responsible for bringing in brutalism. We can’t forget that this movement was happening in the cusp of WW2. The clean, orderly look appealed to leaders like Mussolini and Hitler. In the 1930s, both were obsessed with fascist architecture, using white buildings to try to erase diversity, culture, and color. Hitler even planned a world capital called Germania, all part of this terrifying vision.

Today white is still everywhere. Right-wing movements and white supremacist ideologies have leaned on it as a symbol of purity, dominance, and “national identity.”

And there’s that elitist side too. Think of Kim Kardashian’s giant white mansion. Nobody without massive wealth could pull off that kind of “pure” space.

White isn’t just a color. It’s culture, history, power, and identity all wrapped up in one. The way we use it in our homes, our clothes, and our art is never neutral. Maybe, if we pay attention, we can choose how white shows up in our world—and maybe even rethink what it really means.

With anti-immigration politics, the rise of the right wing, and the loss of rights for the LGBTQIA+ and marginalized communities—what are they erasing?