What do the colours of the MET Gala reveal about the Western situation? A semiotics inquiry

LUCA LOSARDO

University of Turin
Communication and Media Cultures

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Introducción

This essay aims to explore the situation of our semiosphere (Lotman and Uspenskji, 1975), meaning a semiotic space where there is a nucleus and there are margins. The margin is composed of a double space: the one directly linked with the nucleus (ES1) and the one directly linked with the external part (ES2). In this “in-between” territory (ES1 and ES2) the exchange and the “translations” between cultures start. This margin (ES2) has, in fact, a membrane that can be open or closed. The activity of selection used inside a semiosphere, i.e., “translation” from another culture (semiosphere), tells us about the values that are prominent inside it. Even past events or uses of the same culture in a new chain of associations recall this translation process. For this reason, looking at occurrences like the Met Gala^[1], which is a coded event, gives us the possibility to understand which values are being shared in the nucleus of Western semiosphere.

Why looking at this coded and culturally relevant event? Because, if “the semiotic focus considers color as an element objectively apt to substitute entities of another universe, and to be organized in meaningful sets” (Magariños de Morentin, 1981, p. 61, in Caivano, 1998, p. 394), we consider the universe to be translated as the condition of Western semiosphere. In order to achieve this aim, we have decided to take into account the most used colours at the 2025 Met Gala event. Since it is a conventional event, the ratio is facilis (Eco, 1975), i.e., a token corresponds to a specific type. In fact, all the artists and their stylists explain the meaning of the clothes. For example, during the 2025 Met^[2] —theme Superfine: Tailoring Black Style— Lewis Hamilton^[3] underlined how the ivory colour meant purity considering the African heritage, also highlighted by the use of seashells —in the past, a currency.

At the same time, it is important to see what the process of changing of colours is inside the semiosphere. We will do so by looking at the Pantone “Color of the Year” selection. Moreover, considering that we have decided to use Leonhard Oberascher’s (1993) cycle of the different phases of colours, only once these different phases are clarified we are going to check how the cycle has evolved (in the Western semiosphere) by looking at the Pantone “Color of the Year” —from 2019 until 2025. This will be confronted with the Met Gala colours and the colours trends on the Paris, Milan, New York and London runways. After this, we will focus on the imaginary that these colours (and shapes of clothes) evoke, i.e., actualize. In this way, a panorama of the values circulating inside the Western semiosphere will appear, and it will give us the possibility to see whether the semiosphere is living an explosive, stabilizing, growing or extinction moment, and which values are being conveyed in that situation.

Met Gala’s colours analysis

To see the colours that emerge in the Met Gala event we have filled a list with all the colours on the red carpet. We describe them according to the picture published on the Vanity Fair’s website^[4], paying attention to the visible items^[5]. For example, we took note of Teyana Taylor’s outfit designed by Ruth E. Carter, in the following colours^[6]: burgundy (cape, flower, hat, bandana, shirt, waistcoat, gloves, and cane), silver (chains and jewellery), burgundy, black, and silver (suit and pumped heels), and light grey (socks).

The questions that lead this inquiry are: Which is the most used colour? Is it also the most used one in pairs with others? Which are the colours mentioned by the journals that publish information about the event? How much influence exert these Met outfit colour trends on the runways? And how strong are their influences on the bigger social panorama? We are going to answer the two latter questions in the next paragraphs by using the research done by TagWalk, for the runways^[7], and Pantone, for the social colour panorama. In fact, the first is a website that analyses the trends on runways and their fluctuations, while the second “provides a universal language of color that enables color-critical decisions through every stage of the workflow for brands and manufacturers. More than 10 million designers and producers around the world rely on Pantone products and services”^[8].

Now, let us focus on the press perspectives. This is important since they construct the collective imaginaries (Barthes, 1967), therefore, the collective meaning we attribute to colours. Looking at the discursivization of colours given by the newspapers, we see that:

> Harper’s Bazaar^[9] mentions: grey, gold, ivory, white, dark brown, yellow, pearl, black and white, and black, respectively appearing 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 4, 5, and 8 times.
> Vogue^[10] does not mention a single colour.
> WWD^[11] decides not to mention colours too, but chooses to show us 10 pictures where the present colours are: black, black and white, burgundy, black and silver, Klein blue, gold and pearl, leopard print, ivory and pearl, navy blue, pearl and white, brown and yellow.
> The Cut^[12] underlines three categories of judgment: the best, the worst and the weirdest dresses. We see (but do not read) the following: For the first category: white, butter yellow, cinnabar, butter cream, black and white. For the second one: neon pink, silver. For the third one: blue, red and gold.

This discursivization gives us the possibility to understand which are the early-adopter, the mainstream and the laggard colours (Rogers, 1962). Brown, yellow and gold can indicate either laggard or early-adopter. We believe that the first two are an early-mainstream adoption: Ansa underlined butter yellow as trendy for the season^[13], and TagWalk’s trend analysis positioned brown in the same wave^[14]. Gold would be a laggard colour: it was used to remember the black singer, actress and dancer of the past Josephine Baker. Thus, the theme of the dress was recalling something from the past —fashion is driven by this power of recalling (Lipovetsky, 1987; Coccia and Michele, 2024). The meaning of the colours explicitly given by the journal Harper’s Bazaar was the following:

> Black and white, black, white, grey, pearl and ivory were conceptualized as without time, forever lasting, timeless (mainstream).
> Gold, as old homage, therefore time corrupted (laggard).
> Yellow and brown, as contemporary (early-adopter).

As Roland Barthes pointed out, the journals aim to dictate which products are in and which are out, therefore, which are the values linked to that specific time according to the references conducted in their discoursivization^[15]. We will focus on this later in the paper.

Now, if we consider the colours taken per se, without considering their combination on the patterns or motive, we see that the most used colours are white (77 tokens) and black (135 tokens). The correlations between the colours and the items are interesting:

> Black has a strong correlation in footwear (93 shoes).
> White is mainly used in shirts (58 shirts).

It is not a surprise that the most usual pattern employs black and white (42 tokens), while the multi-coloured patterns have mainly a black base. Outside this combination, the other most common ones in fabrics are:

> Black and silver (20 tokens).
> Black, white and grey (7 tokens).
> Black, white and red (5 tokens).

Other relevant data are the uses of burgundy combined with other colours (5 combinations), and the fact that blue is also often used with other colours.

A first analysis: the colours’ cycle and the semiotic perspective

“If we consider color as a sign, we are including all the aspects, because a sign is not a previously defined thing, but a consequence of various factors and of the context in which it is taken as such” (Caivano, 1998, p. 390). In fact, it is not surprising that in order to underline how much culture determines the visibility of the world, Umberto Eco states:

Nel continuum sono state ritagliate delle porzioni (che come vedremo sono arbitrarie) per cui la lunghezza d’onda d. […] costituisce un’unità culturale alla quale viene assegnato un nome. Sappiamo anche che la scienza ha ritagliato in quel modo il continuum per giustificare in termini di lunghezze d’onda un’unità che l’esperienza ingenua aveva già ritagliato per conto proprio, assegnandole il nome |verde|. La segmentazione compiuta sulla base dell’esperienza non è stata arbitraria nel senso che è stata probabilmente dettata da esigenze di sopravvivenza: una popolazione che vivesse in un deserto di sabbia rossastra, abitato da animali dal pelo fulvo e in cui crescono solo varietà di fiori scarlatti, sarebbe obbligata a segmentare con estrema finezza quella porzione di continuum che noi chiamiamo |rosso|. Ma questo stesso argomento prova anche che la segmentazione è ‘in certo modo’ arbitraria, perché popoli diversi segmentano lo stesso continuum percettivo in modi diversi (Eco, 1975, p. 135).

[From the continuum, some portions (which, as we shall see, are arbitrary) have been carved out, so that the wavelength d. […] constitutes a cultural unit to which a name is assigned. We also know that science has carved out the continuum in this way to justify in terms of wavelengths a unit that naive experience had already carved out on its own, assigning it the name |green|. The segmentation made on the basis of experience was not arbitrary in the sense that it was probably dictated by survival needs: a population living in a desert of reddish sand, inhabited by animals with tawny hair and in which only scarlet flower varieties grow, would be obliged to segment with extreme finesse that portion of the continuum that we call |red|. But this same argument also proves that segmentation is ‘somewhat’ arbitrary, because different peoples segment the same perceptual continuum in different ways.] (author’s translation)

In fact, “color combinations that do not follow the accepted conventions fail to communicate the intended message”, and similarly, from a phenomenological perspective, “a change in color relationships due to an illumination different from white light would turn familiar objects into unrecognizable things” (Caivano, 1998, pp. 392-393). The change of the spatial flux of light reflected or transmitted by objects, an aspect called cesia (Caivano, 1991, 1997; Caivano and Green-Armytage, 2016), also influences the perception of colours. However, since our aim is to note the condition of the semiosphere, we are not considering the cesia effects but the conventions associated with colours. As already stated, we are going to do so by looking at the trend colours on runways also.

The fact that a painter can recognise and name more colours, the fact that verbal language itself is able not only to designate hundreds of nuances, but also describe unheard-of tints by examples, periphrases and poetic ingenuity —all this represents a series of cases of elaborate codes (Eco, 1985, p. 174).

As Beat Lehman (1998, pp. 192-197) and José Luis Caivano (1998, pp. 399-400) point out, in color semantics, in order to convey a more precise meaning, adjectives coming from plants, herbs, objects or animals are added. However, “the names of colours, taken in themselves, have no precise chromatic content: they must be viewed within the general context of many interacting semiotic systems” (Eco, 1985, p. 171).

For this reason, if we consider the Met as a text where the colours are clues about the situation of the Western semiosphere, it could be interesting:

a. to confront the colours of Met with other fashion events, like runways and colour companies or institutions, like Pantone; as well as
b. to study the dispositions of prominent colours within the theory of colours’ cycle proposed by Oberascher (1993).

With regard to this last point, and from surveys conducted in Germany, Oberascher notes a circle of colour preferences where every phase leaves gradually the place to the other one in this order:

> a chromatic phase,
> a darkening phase,
> a brown phase,
> a lighter phase,
> an achromatic phase (white and greys dominates),
> a combining phase of achromatic and chromatic tones,
> a combining phase of achromatic, chromatic and purple tones.

After the purple phase, where the achromatic colours disappear, the circle starts again, i.e., it goes to the chromatic phase.

Using this precious analysis, we can link the movements of the cycle as indicators of stabilisation, explosion, growth or extinction of a semiosphere (Lotman and Uspenskji, 1975; Lotman, 1992). In fact, considering that black, grey, gold, ivory, white, dark brown, yellow, pearl, black, and white are the colours mentioned in Bazaar, we can see that there is a combination of colours of achromatic and chromatic tones. However, inside the entire panorama of the event, and in the picture published in the other articles (WWD and The Cut) we saw few purple tones: cinnabar, neon pink, blue, red, burgundy, and a leopard print. Considering that the purple phase is only visually present (and in minority) but not verbally expressed, we would tend to highlight the situation as a “combining phase from achromatic towards chromatic” tones. In fact, Harper’s Bazaar described the gold (lighter) phase as old, the white, black and grey (achromatic) phase as timeless, and the brown and yellow (chromatic) phase as contemporary. Nonetheless, considering only the Met Gala we could not highlight the disposition of the Western semiosphere; we need other comparative elements, like colour trends on runways.

The colours’ trends on the runways

What do the trends on the runway tell us about Oberascher’s (1993) cycle? The TAGWalk analysis of the Paris, Milan, New York and London Fashion Weeks points out that the trending colours of the S/S 2025^[16] womenswear season are (Figure 1):

> Black and white in the majority of cases;
> Beige and light blue in minor proportion than the first two;
> Grey, pink and pastel as the following colours.

These data underline almost the same situation of the Met colours: there is a combination of chromatic and achromatic tones. However, we see that something strange is happening. The chromatic colours (red, green, yellow) are decreasingly used; things not to be expected if we adopt the point of view of the Met Gala colours (where the chromatic and purple tones were more frequent) and the Oberascher (1993) colours’ cycle (where the achromatic should be progressively substituted).

If confronted with the situation of the womenswear F/W 2024 season, pink was substituted more and more by red, and the same happens in the F/W 2025 as well (Figure 2). Therefore, we cannot think but a strange jump happened passing from the combining phase of chromatic and achromatic tones (F/W 2024) towards an achromatic one (Figure 1, S/S 2025) to a combing phase of chromatic, achromatic and purple tones (F/W 2025)^[17].

Semiotic analysis: the explosion of the semiosphere

Now that we have noticed the colour trends of runways, it is necessary to understand which are the phases that can be considered as an extinction, explosion, stability, and growth of the semiosphere, meaning, the correlation between the light-spectrum perceived as colour (thanks to the interaction with cesia, spatial disposition and texture; see Caivano and Green-Armytage, 2016) and the values that colour culturally conveys in the specific artefact.

Jurij Mihajlovic Lotman (1992) says that when there is an explosion in the semiosphere, the values totally change, they are put upside-down. This happens because some catastrophes take place —in the mathematical sense, i.e., a sudden jump from one stable state to another due to minor changes (Thom, 2011). Obviously, what is currently happening in Europe and the USA, but also in Gaza, could induce a catastrophe in the colours’ circle. However, this can only be inferred by a comparison between the different colours’ circle taking place in different realms. In our specific case, the fashion world (Met and the runways) and the industrial realm (Pantone). Nonetheless, before proceeding, the difference between growth and explosion must be stressed.

Growth takes place when the semiosphere is in a “good state”, confronting with other semiospheres and “translating” their codes, thanks to the opening of the membrane, adding new aspects and perspectives. This can be somehow predicted —as it happens in the rhythmic change of the first four phases of Oberascher’s (1993) colours circle (from a chromatic to a lighter phase). Explosion happens when the change is abrupt and unexpected, usually caused by major or minor events —in this last case we could talk about catastrophic points referring to René Thom’s theory (2011). It must be clear that explosion does not indicate a positive or a negative position but only a major change inside the values of a semiosphere. The explosion should be indicated by a jump forward or backward in the colours cycle. The closure of the membrane should indicate the persistence of a specific phase during time, and if it does not lead to a change, it causes the extinction of the semiosphere.

Considering that the trends on runways and at the Met Gala pointed to a combining phase of achromatic, chromatic and purple tones, we should be in a stabilizing moment of the semiosphere, at least in the fashion sector. This stabilisation could be easily directed towards instability, i.e., an explosive moment, if there are forces that push the semiosphere in the folding (Figure 3). However, only one sector would not highlight the multiplicity of the semiosphere, therefore, we aim to look at Pantone in order to have another comparative and more general account of the colour disposition inside the semiosphere. Moreover, the diachronic perspective on runways highlights an explosion moment, where a jump is observed between the sequence of trend colours, as underlined before^[18].

A macro analysis from Pantone “Color of the Year”

It is also possible to see the explosion by looking at the Pantone elections of “Color of the Year” —election that happens at the beginning of each year. To take this assertion into account, we are going to analyse the period that goes from 2019 to 2025. The colour chosen by Pantone passed from the chromatic (Living Coral, in 2019) towards the darkening phase (Classic Blue, in 2020), but it was immediately followed by a (paradoxical) combining phase of chromatic + achromatic tones (Illuminating, i.e., a bright yellow, and Ultimate Gray, in 2021)^[19] and by a lighter phase (Very Peri, in 2022)^[20]. It was no coincidence considering the situation: the explosion of Covid-19 (the end of 2019 and hitting on Western countries in 2020) and the necessity to rethink the cultural trauma. In 2022, an open war broke out between Ukraine and Russia, and the colour of 2023 was, in fact, Viva Magenta:

Viva Magenta welcomes anyone and everyone with the same verve for life and rebellious spirit. It is a color that is audacious, full of wit and inclusive of all. […] Viva Magenta is a transformative red tone capable of driving design to create a more positive future. […] What distinguishes this year’s Color of the Year from last year’s […] is Viva Magenta’s ability to answer our collective need for strength. (https://www.pantone.com/articles/color-of-the-year/what-is-viva-magenta)

This does not continue the cycle; in fact, it is a blend of a darkening and a chromatic phase: the colour presents, in fact, red pigments (red, that is a saturation of brown, as the Groupe µ, 1992, noted). In 2023 emerges in the mainstream the genocide still happening in Gaza. If we hypothesize that here, as in 2020, there was a catastrophe, meaning a jump from one part to another, we should see that the darkening phase is not followed by the brown phase. In fact, in 2024 we have Peach Fuzz (lighter phase): brown was skipped. Here there is a cusp, given by the opening (towards Ukraine) and closing (towards Russia) of the semiosphere. Other changes happen, and the cycle is not restored. Still following the uncertainty of the new panorama, with the emerging of far-right wings in Europe, we see another catastrophe: the brown phase emerges after the lighter phase. This seems to suggest a hysteresis loop, since the lighter phase is moving backwards in the continuum (but this will be visible only if the next colours will be from the darkening phase and then again brown and lighter phase). The colour of 2025 is, in fact, Mocha Mousse. In this case, we have a folding of the continuum.

Now, if we link the theory of catastrophes (Thom, 2011) with the approach of semiotics of culture (Lotman and Uspenskij, 1975; Lotman, 1992) used to study the semiosphere, we would obtain the opening (y) and closing (x) of the membrane of the semiosphere as variables of control, while the condition of the semiosphere (z) as variable of state. In fact, on the surface of behaviour we obtain four points: stability (3), growth (1), extinction (2), and explosion (4). All these correspond to specific positions in relation to x and y, as it is visible in Figure 3. In fact, if y increases there is extinction, while if x increases there is growth. When there is the presence of both, x and y, we obtain the instability that pushes the explosion of the semiosphere, while if there is a rhythmic circle that moves from opening to closure moments and vice versa there is stability.

In the case study of Pantone “New Year Color” from 2019 to 2025, we see that there are more folds —so, just to be clear, it differs from the basic scheme of the semiosphere topology that we are proposing in Figure 3— because the cyclic order has been broken more than just one time.

Interactions between Pantone’s and fashions’ colour trends

This analysis about the rhythm of the Pantone “New Year Color” shows us a different position between the Pantone view, the one from the runways taken under exams and the Met Gala event. In fact, in 2025 Pantone is in a brown phase after a lighter one, while from the runway and the Met 2025 we see that there is a combining phase of achromatic and chromatic tones, and in the case of runways we passed from an achromatic towards a combining phase of achromatic, chromatic and purple tones. Why does this phenomenon happen? The answer can be found upon considering two facts:

> Pantone proposes a colour —often pushing it— that should be applied in every aspect of life, from the construction of houses to digital devices, from clothes to interior design^[21].
> Runways and the Met Gala present a specific part of the colour disposition and social diffusion in clothes.

For this reason, we can say that Pantone is inserted into a macro field that also contains the fashion world, while the fashion world, as a micro component, can influence the macro aspect. This theory about macro and micro relations has been studied by the sociologist James Coleman (1990), as relations between institutions (macro) and actors (micro)^[22]. Thanks to the “Coleman Boat” it is possible to observe three relations:

> Macro to micro (Mm),
> micro to micro (mm), and
> micro to Macro (mM).

The Mm relation is the constitution of what in semiotics is called a code, i.e., a rule that create relations between systems: the colours decided by Pantone and the industrial production. The mm relation is the use, i.e., what a community of users does with this code, i.e., to decide to totally apply, oppose or modulate the relation given by “the coder”: the fashion system proposes another use of colours underlining a different phase. The mM relation is the creation of a “shared norm”, i.e., the micro actions influence the institution; for example, the fashion industry factually pushes the use of different colours (in the clothes realm) more than the colour proposed by Pantone. This highlights the reason for this difference. However, even in the difference between Macro and micro, we see that the austere colours predicted for the F/W 2023 collections (but used in the F/W 2022) appointed by TagWalk (Figure 4) are shown as dominant colours on Met Gala and runways.

What does this suggest? This tells us about a discontinuous pattern caused by some culturally shocking events that break the continuity of the cycle: an explosion of the semiosphere. “The role and significance of particular colors in human society are characterized by collective experiences associated with these colors” (Oberascher, 1997, p. 2). The runways show us more colours that are, in some portions, present to the Met Gala but are not the ones mostly conveyed by it. The colours culturally conceived as more pertinent —namely, the most shared colors on the newspapers— are the same of the F/W 2022, three years before. There is an emergence of the achromatic phase that goes toward a combining phase with chromatic and purple tones.

However, as we stated earlier, the closure of the semiosphere is characterised by the persistence of a certain colour. So, could not this be the case? No, as we stated, the actual panorama has pushed more on brown and butter yellow colours, making a somehow corrected Pantone’s assumption on the trendy colour as a brown phase, even if on the runway for the S/S 2025 collections the colour is not so much present but it is more present in F/W 2025^[23]. Here, we can see instability, the premonition of a hysteresis loop^[24]. We are at the bifurcation point: the cycle shows us the possibility towards a combining phase (as the cycle should go) or an instable one towards the brown (as the cycle seems to go, looking at Pantone predictions and at the newspaper publications).

The values of the contemporary semiosphere: political recession and technological dreams

What is the semantics linked to these colours? If we consider the theme of the night —Superfine: Tailoring Black Style—, it is impossible not to link the use of colour (and the piece of ornament that conveys it) to specific periods of time, as the ratio facilis (Eco, 1975) pushes us to do.

The use of the pinstripe fabrics is highlighted —characterized by a pattern of black and white colours. This specific colour combination and symbolic association pushed by the theme of the night that works as an interpretant (Peirce, CP 1.553, 2.242), i.e., something that links a sign (Met Gala Event) to an object (piece of ornament), builds a bridge with the thirties, were the pinstripe gained great success. It is not possible, when thinking about the thirties, to underline a technological development (such as the one we are living today with AI) and the political recession (such as the one we are living today in Europe^[25] and USA). All these cultural connections underline how much the imaginary draws on forms from the past in which it mirrors the conditions of today. This is shown, in fact, by the interruption of the normal flow of the cycle —as already noted in the previous paragraphs. A study conducted by Antonio Santangelo (2023), following Gabriele Marino’s (2015) conception about remixing, remaking and spreadability, had shown how much the discourses —and so the values— spread about the IA are taken from novels and concepts already present in the past. Therefore, the uses of specific past references convey the values that are dominant inside a society.

Another reference that underlines a critical situation of politics in Europe and the pushing for technological advancement is the reference to the twenties^[26]. On Ferragamo website it is stated:

Ferragamo al Met Gala 2025. Con radici che affondano nella Hollywood degli anni Venti, l’eredità di Ferragamo è profondamente intrecciata con il cinema e il fascino senza tempo^[27].

[Ferragamo at the Met Gala 2025. With roots stretching back to 1920s Hollywood, Ferragamo’s legacy is deeply intertwined with cinema and timeless glamour.] (author’s translation)

Considering that the theme of the night was the Black Tailoring and the black community influence on fashion, black is “charged” by euphoric, i.e. positive, valence. However, this euphoric valence is not opposed to white:

Black and white [are] associated with birth and death. In western culture, the pairs are: white = birth, baptism, and black = death. But, as Arnheim notes, white has a double and opposite meaning, the purity and innocence of the beginning of life, on one hand, and the emptiness of death, on the other. Lack of hue means lack of life. In oriental cultures, white definitively means death (Caivano, 1998, p. 397).

Now, white does not represent “the emptiness of death” here. So, even white is charged with euphoric values. At the same time, black expands its realm further than the “death” meaning attribution (dysphoric valence) and becomes something like the “exploration of life”. In fact, even black possesses the white duality:

Il nero […] da una parte è un non colore come il bianco, regno della continuità, della piattezza, della cancellazione del variopinto […] mentre dall’altra è il colore più forte che ci sia, pura discontinuità, la tinta che si raggiunge quando si sommano tutti i colori (Agnello, 2013, p. 40).

[Black [..] on the one hand is a non-colour like white, reign of continuity, of flatness, of the multi-coloured’s removal […], while on the other hand it is the strongest colour that exists, pure discontinuity, the colour that is obtained when all other colours are mixed.] (author’s translation).

The disposition and the relation of black and white on the body, thanks to the ornaments, suggests us this “in-betweenness” of black —that for metonymy becomes linked to the black community. The black ornaments appear at two extremes: footwear and sunglasses. They both are linked to movement: the feet with the movement of the entire body in the space, and the gaze^[28] with the movement of the “emotion”, the “desire” in and outside the space.

However, since the value is always given in a relation, what is the position of the other major colour? White is still present in a central position. It is not opposed to black, but it works with it. In fact, white appears at the centre of the body —the shirt— and sometimes it shares the space in the foot (many wore black and white shoes, like Rihanna, Dapper Dan, Whoopi Goldberg, Pusha T’s outfits). Somehow, it is being suggested that black and white can cooperate, not being in an oppositive relation but in a participative opposition, where black is the term that includes both, black and white. Topologically speaking, in the dresses presented at the Met Gala, in fact, black circumscribes white. It is clearly associated with emancipatory actions. Moreover, the relation and stability of black and white as a pattern.

Non nasce con la scacchiera, che fino all’Ottocento usava i colori più disparati, ma con la stampa, e si afferma poi con la fotografia, il cinema e la televisione (Agnello, 2013, p. 39).

[Is not born with the chessboard that until the 18th century used diversified colours, but with the press, and then it is established thanks to photography, cinema and television.] (author’s translation).

Marialaura Agnello also highlighted how much black and white are opposed to other colours, the former being considered as lack of colours. The semantic values are therefore “everyday routine, realism, authority, rigour, austere, scientific”, opposed to the values of chromatic colours: “extraordinariness, fantasy, futility, lightness, ridiculous, artistic”.

Outside this specific relation, and other than the “black and white pinstripe thirties”, we have references to the fifties. In fact, there was the presence of colours that immediately echo this period: baby blue and butter yellow (men’s sportswear, women’s dresses). The fifties underlined also a period of difficult times —post-war— and of vintage retrieval: the need for a strong imaginary taken from the past, as the current political emerging parties seem to evoke. Thus, the values that are underlined are the ones of austerity and rigour that are put on us by the political, economic and social situation. These two values also seem in resonance with the semantics of brown, considered as something that, at the same time, gives comfort and stability, at least in the current panorama.

Conclusion

In this semiotic exploration we have seen how much the current Western culture is filled with a “nostalgia” given by the uncertainty of our contemporary times: both political and social instability and technological advancement (without any control). There is an explosion happening in the semiosphere. The change of values considered, until now, central for our culture —democratic debates, exchanging of concepts in a pacific way and explorations— are challenged by extreme rigour and austerity, and searching without questioning for stability. We have approached this by using the instruments of the semiotics of culture, in particular Jurij Michajlovic Lotman and Boris Andreevic Uspenskij (1975) and Lotman (1992), in interaction with the theory of catastrophes (Thom, 2011) and colour theory (Oberascher, 1993, 1997; Caivano, 1998; Agnello, 2013).

In the first part we noticed that dominant colours were black and white, with black strongly linked to footwear and white to shirts. The most recurrent pattern was black-and-white, followed by black-and-silver. TagWalk data corroborated the dominance of black and white, with burgundy and blue emerging as versatile accents in polychromatic designs.

Drawing on Caivano (1998) and Eco (1975, 1985), we affirm that colour perception is neither innate nor arbitrary but emerges from Umwelt (Uexküll, 1934), i.e., socio-cultural segmentation and material affordances. The dominance of achromatic tones (white and grey) alongside selective chromatic accents (e.g., burgundy, cinnabar) at the Met Gala reflects a “combining phase” (Oberascher, 1993), where Western semiosphere oscillate between stability and transition. Editorial narratives (Harper’s Bazaar, The Cut) reinforced black and white as canonical, while marginalizing purple hues, despite their visual presence —a tension between verbal and visual codification (Eco, 1985). TagWalk’s S/S 2025 data corroborate this, showing the black/white dominance (Figure 4) and a decline in primary chromatics (red, green) (Figure 1), suggesting a jump in F/W 2025 toward a combining phase of achromatic, chromatic and purple tones (Oberascher, 1993). However, Pantone choices and the newspaper description of brown and butter yellow as trendy, push us to think about an emergence of brown tones highlighting also the instability of the system.

After that, we have shown that the semiosphere is undergoing a phase of explosion by considering the relation between the colours’ cycle (Oberascher, 1993) and the morphology of the semiosphere (Thom, 2011; Lotman, 1992). We have accomplished this by comparing the colour trends of Western fashion and the successions of Pantone “Color of the Year”, showing the explosion periods from 2022 to 2025, thanks to a jump forward in 2021 and 2024, and backwards in 2022, 2023 and 2025. We are representing them in Table 1, where we have linked different colours to every colour phase, and used the same colours for the Pantone data to make the jumps clear.

The state of the semiosphere can thus be diagnosed through colour trends:

> An unclear “combining phase” (both with achromatic and purple tones) suggests destabilization, as the one we are experiencing today. It can make foreseen explosion.
> The gradual change, as the normal colours’ cycle goes, suggests stabilisation.
> A sudden change in the colours’ cycle might signal explosion.

The resurgence of F/W 2022’s achromatic palette in 2025 media discourse underscores this rupture, aligning with Lotman’s (1992) notion of cultural memory as a destabilizing force. In fact, Lotman argues that cultural memory is not merely preservative but generative and unpredictable. It stores potential meanings that can resurface abruptly, triggering “explosions”. However, since the cycle has not ended, we do not know how it is going to proceed, whether towards extinction or growth. We just know that we are in an explosive moment (as indicated by the jumps between the folds of the continuum).

However, in the last section was have stressed how much the values that are being conveyed by the colours refer to technological advancement and a social uncertainty time period, where there is a strong desire for stability, underlining a closure of the membrane. So, this seems to push the semiosphere towards extinction. In this case, Figure 3 would highlight that the growth is pushed towards the right-side, generating explosion for the jump of the continuum, since there is an attractor given by the (desired) closure of the semiosphere’s membrane; how it emerges from the references of time period where this closure happened.

This framework places fashion as a barometer of cultural-semiotic flux, where chromatic choices materialize deeper structural shifts. Future research could correlate specific geopolitical events with trend disruptions, in order to test catastrophe theory’s applicability and obscure points of our seminal proposal. By looking at the fashion sector, the present research highlighted how much the market is saturated by achromatic colours and low chromatic ones. Therefore, it could be a good marketing strategy for a brand to use chromatic colours in opposition to all the other brands. This would give the possibility for a brand to pop up more than the others in the market. Obviously, the use of these chromatic tones should be properly semanticized, in order to be effective in the current (unstable) panorama ■

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NOTAS

^[1]              An annual fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City, which has a specific different theme every year.

^[2]              From now on, when Met or Met Gala are used, we will be referring to the 2025 Met Gala event: Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, unless otherwise expressed.

^[3]              The picture is visible here: https://www.elle.com/fashion/celebrity-style/a64677390/lewis-hamilton-photos-met-gala-2025/  and the declaration about the clothes meaning here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJS9Qz3Ic6H/?igsh=dmhydzZvMmZteDZ6

^[4]              https://www.vanityfair.it/gallery/met-gala-2025-outfit-look-red-carpet-abiti-vestiti-foto

^[5]              The list can be obtained by writing to the author.

^[6]              The picture of the clothes is visible here: https://www.vanityfair.it/gallery/met-gala-2025-outfit-look-red-carpet-abiti-vestiti-foto

^[7]              “SaaS data platforms & strategic reports provider on luxury trends and insights” https://www.tag-walk.com/en/

^[8]              https://www.pantone.com/color-systems/pantone-color-systems-explained?srsltid=AfmBOopcG5VyE0iXH5e_xJ6uwh7l4nTaGqaAzfbIDcirTymevTOMY3N0

^[9]              https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/g64673465/best-dressed-red-carpet-photos-Met-gala-2025/

^[10]             https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/Met-gala-2025-best-tailoring

^[11]             https://wwd.com/eye/people/gallery/Met-gala-2025-best-dressed-photos-1237310978/Met-gala-2025-red-carpet-arrivals-photos-221/

^[12]             https://www.thecut.com/article/met-gala-2025-best-dressed-outfits-looks.html

^[13]             https://www.ansa.it/canale_lifestyle/notizie/moda/2025/05/01/il-color-giallo-burro-la-tonalita-trend-di-primavera_eb516e88-7d85-4891-aa6f-99fc0e9ed479.html

^[14]             https://www.instagram.com/p/C-66pYgMVSy/?igsh=MWs0dHlkYnIzZzlmNg

^[15]             In fact, Harper’s Bazaar, commenting on FKA Twigs in Grace Wales Bonner outfit, writes: “the look channelled 1920s elegance through a modern lens”, making an explicit link to the world’s value taken into account as contemporary when these 1920s echoes have “refined detail and subtle drama”.

^[16]             Not many differences in the womenswear F/W 2025, the major change is the increasing of the grey colour.

^[17]             Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Elle state that purple is the trendy colour of the F/W 2025 season: https://www.vogue.it/article/viola-ametista-colore-tendenza-capi-accessori, https://www.harpersbazaar.com/it/moda/tendenze/a65897912/questo-colore-difficile-tendenza-autunno/, https://www.elle.com/it/moda/tendenze/a65661282/7-colori-moda-autunno-inverno-2025-202/

^[18]             From the combining phase of chromatic and achromatic tones (F/W 2024) towards an achromatic one (Figure 1; S/S 2025), to jump on a combination of chromatic, achromatic and purple tones (F/W 2025).

^[19]             These are the words that explain the reason of these colours as the colours of the year 2021: “Practical and rock solid but at the same time warming and optimistic, the union of Pantone E 17-5104 Ultimate Gray + Pantone 13-0647 Illuminating is one of strength and positivity. It is a story of color that encapsulates deeper feelings of thoughtfulness with the promise of something sunny and friendly” (https://www.pantone.com/articles/color-of-the-year/color-of-the-year-2021).

^[20]             “Very Peri is a symbol of the global zeitgeist of the moment and the transition we are going through. As we emerge from an intense period of isolation, our notions and standards are changing, and our physical and digital lives have merged in new ways. Digital design helps us to stretch the limits of reality, opening the door to a dynamic virtual world where we can explore and create new color possibilities.” (https://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2022).

^[21]             “The goal of the program isn’t to push a certain color, although we do see that colors named as Pantone Color of the Year increase in popularity. After being integrated into the cultural mindset, they sometimes become even more influential the following year” (https://www.pantone.com/articles/color-of-the-year/what-is-color-of-the-year).

^[22]             A critic can be moved to the concept of actor in sociology; but from this perspective we invite the reader to look at Bruno Latour (2021).

^[23]             https://www.instagram.com/tagwalk/p/DN04ls_2pAR/

^[24]             The hysteresis loop happens when there is a coming back from the point of departure. In the current case, the beginning of a combining phase with a majority of achromatic colours would pass towards a lighter (with butter yellow) and a brown phase, to follow again the cycle —if another fold does not happen in the continuum.

^[25]             In Germany, the far-right party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), is considered unconstitutional (https://verfassungsschutz.thueringen.de/).

^[26]             We have already stressed, in footnote 15, the link to the twenties realized by Harper’s Bazaar.

^[27]             https://www.ferragamo.com/shop/ita/it/sf/gallery-Met-gala-2025?srsltid=AfmBOooLRJSjfPFP-ZbjShzvGfPuFtK0HUIe5dBdBNqdn641sh3p1vbD

^[28]             Leopardi’s Infinito underlines this gaze movement: “Sempre caro mi fu quest’ermo colle,/ E questa siepe, che da tanta parte/ Dell’ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude./ Ma sedendo e mirando, interminati/ Spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani/ Silenzi, e profondissima quiete/ Io nel pensier mi fingo; ove per poco/ Il cor non si spaura” [This lonely hill has always been dear to me/, And this hedge, which excludes so much/ Of the last horizon from my view./ But sitting and gazing, I imagine endless/ Spaces beyond it, and beyond human/ Silences, and profound stillness;/ where my thoughts focusing, for a moment/ My heart is afraid-taken.] (author’s translation).

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INFORMACIÓN PARA CITAR ESTE ARTÍCULO:

Losardo, Luca (2025, May-October). What do the colours of the MET Gala reveal about the Western situation? A semiotics inquiry. [En línea]. AREA, 31(2). https://doi.org/10.62166/area.31.2.3630