As I’ve done before, I’m using my automated script for going through all the images hosted on Vogue Runway’s website for the current ready-to-wear collections, asking an LLM (currently GPT4o) to report all the colors in the outfit in each picture, and counting up the totals.
So this means the “count” for each color is the number of times GPT4o observed it, across all images; if it mentions a black hat and a black dress in the same image, for instance, that counts as two.
To save time, I didn’t do manual results this time around.
The Results
Here’s the top 30 colors:
and the top 30 non-neutral colors (not black, white, gray, brown, or shades thereof):
As you can see, there’s a lot of black. Well, there’s always a lot of black; black is always the #1 color; but this time around, the near-synonym “jet black” is also in the #2 slot, and “charcoal black” was #7, neither of which were top-30 colors in past years.
We also see burgundy as the most common non-neutral color (whereas it’s almost always red in that slot), and the new color “oxblood” (a dark, brownish red) in the #7 slot, as well as many other dark and muted tones.
The color theme for Fall/Winter 2026 is clearly darkness. Black, charcoal gray, burgundy, and other dark shades predominate.
Comparisons to Past Years
If you compare to FW25, we see a very stark difference:
In FW26, we’ve clearly moved away from white, beige, and brown, towards black and charcoal gray, and away from red towards burgundy.
Overall, we see a systematic movement towards darker colors, and away from pastels and brights.
Rising (significantly higher in rank than last year):
mustard yellow
peach
New (in the top 30 this year but not last year):
jet black
charcoal black
taupe
oxblood
brick red
wine
dusty rose
burnt orange
olive
sage green
slate blue
cobalt blue
plum
fuchsia
magenta
Falling (significantly lower in rank than last year):
red
yellow
light blue
lavender
Lost (in the top 30 last year but not this year):
light beige
pale pink
orange
light green
light purple
purple
deep purple
dark purple
Or, visualized, we see a lot of dark and muted tones among the winners, and brights and pastels among the losers.
The overall prevalence of black in the collections isn’t just a retreat to “safe basics” due to economic caution — the luxury market seems to be improving slightly after several bad years, and is projected to strengthen further.
BNP Paribas estimates of luxury sales
Rather, this looks like a stylistic change. Maybe a subtle commentary on the “gloom” of the world situation, maybe part of the “return to sexiness” and edgy, vampy styles that’s been prominent in Vogue’s fashion coverage, who knows.
It’s definitely the biggest color shift I’ve observed since I’ve started tracking color trends. The overall “arc” of this decade started with post-pandemic bright colors in 2021, followed by a retreat to neutrals over the next few years, and now this clear-cut shift towards darkness.
FW26 Color Stats
Link post
Once again, I am coming out with stats on the colors in the latest fashion collections: this time, for the fall/winter 2026 season.
Previous entries: SS26, FW25, SS25, FW24, SS24.
Methodology Recap
As I’ve done before, I’m using my automated script for going through all the images hosted on Vogue Runway’s website for the current ready-to-wear collections, asking an LLM (currently GPT4o) to report all the colors in the outfit in each picture, and counting up the totals.
So this means the “count” for each color is the number of times GPT4o observed it, across all images; if it mentions a black hat and a black dress in the same image, for instance, that counts as two.
To save time, I didn’t do manual results this time around.
The Results
Here’s the top 30 colors:
and the top 30 non-neutral colors (not black, white, gray, brown, or shades thereof):
As you can see, there’s a lot of black. Well, there’s always a lot of black; black is always the #1 color; but this time around, the near-synonym “jet black” is also in the #2 slot, and “charcoal black” was #7, neither of which were top-30 colors in past years.
We also see burgundy as the most common non-neutral color (whereas it’s almost always red in that slot), and the new color “oxblood” (a dark, brownish red) in the #7 slot, as well as many other dark and muted tones.
The color theme for Fall/Winter 2026 is clearly darkness. Black, charcoal gray, burgundy, and other dark shades predominate.
Comparisons to Past Years
If you compare to FW25, we see a very stark difference:
In FW26, we’ve clearly moved away from white, beige, and brown, towards black and charcoal gray, and away from red towards burgundy.
Overall, we see a systematic movement towards darker colors, and away from pastels and brights.
Rising (significantly higher in rank than last year):
mustard yellow
peach
New (in the top 30 this year but not last year):
jet black
charcoal black
taupe
oxblood
brick red
wine
dusty rose
burnt orange
olive
sage green
slate blue
cobalt blue
plum
fuchsia
magenta
Falling (significantly lower in rank than last year):
red
yellow
light blue
lavender
Lost (in the top 30 last year but not this year):
light beige
pale pink
orange
light green
light purple
purple
deep purple
dark purple
Or, visualized, we see a lot of dark and muted tones among the winners, and brights and pastels among the losers.
The overall prevalence of black in the collections isn’t just a retreat to “safe basics” due to economic caution — the luxury market seems to be improving slightly after several bad years, and is projected to strengthen further.
Rather, this looks like a stylistic change. Maybe a subtle commentary on the “gloom” of the world situation, maybe part of the “return to sexiness” and edgy, vampy styles that’s been prominent in Vogue’s fashion coverage, who knows.
It’s definitely the biggest color shift I’ve observed since I’ve started tracking color trends. The overall “arc” of this decade started with post-pandemic bright colors in 2021, followed by a retreat to neutrals over the next few years, and now this clear-cut shift towards darkness.