I was intrigued to read that rose gold is the color to wear.
At least, according to this BBC News article by Mary-Ann Russon and published on July 18, 2018.
(Just in case you’re wondering, ‘rose gold’ and ‘pink’ are 'more or less', the same thing!)
In fact, Marie Claire's digital fashion editor Penny Goldstone opined that rose gold has become a pop culture phenomenon. It's been around since 2015 but it's still massively popular!
According to leading fashion trend spotting agency WGSN, rose gold first came into vogue in 2012, when it began being regularly featured in jewellery and which led to some rose gold creations on the catwalk.
For the rest of the world, the first we'd ever heard of the color was when Apple launched the rose gold iPhone 6S in September 2015.
It was the gadget for celebrities and social media influencers – a supposedly rare occurrence where those who consider themsmelves as trendsetters actually took notice of a gadget launch event, and interestingly, had signalled that the iPhone 6S was the "must have" item.
You may have thought that it was very nice of Apple to come up with an option for the ladies.
But to hear the Internet tell the story, men are huge fans too. In fact, the rose gold iPhone was so popular amongst the men that this same color has been referred to as Bros’ Gold.
For sure, one of Apple's most popular launches, with 40% of all pre-orders opting for the said model.
WGSN's color director Jane Boddy recognized that this particular iPhone caused the color to "hit critical mass" – and because of this, in 2016 the color was named Pantone Color of the Year, under the moniker "rose quartz".
In fact, Pantone, if you didn’t already know, are famous for their color swatch matching system.
Each year, Pantone come up with a color, and that's when fashion designers, high street clothing retailers, home furnishing experts and the wedding industry sit up and take notice of.
Pantone chose "greenery" as their color of the year in 2017, while 2018-2019's color is meant to be lilac, and 2020 will be all about mint.
Even so, rose gold continues to be as popular as ever!
It had been pointed out that the socmed, particularly, the millennials have held on to pink because it photographs well in posts on their favorite web platforms.
"It's all about matching everything. So on Instagram you'll have people posting a picture where they're drinking a glass of rosé while sitting on a pink lounger, wearing a vintage pink 50s swimsuit".
Sure, high street brands are influenced by styles on the catwalks – but Goldstone acknowledged: "They will look at micro trends – what’s hot this summer – so if a bunch of influencers are all wearing the same dress on Instagram from Topshop, then they'll stock a similar product".
She had surmised that millennials first began falling in love with rose gold in 2014 when the film The Grand Budapest Hotel came out, as it featured a lot of luxurious retro pink interiors.
Ralph Fiennes and Tony Revolori in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Fox Searchlight Pictures
Panasonic had conducted a market survey of women aged 20-29 in Germany, France and the UK, and were told that respondents preferred their beauty products like hairdryers and hair straighteners to be in rose gold, because they identified the color with being feminine, elegant, and premium.
And Spanish car manufacturer Seat too observed a trend in rose gold – and they decided to bring out a rose gold version of their Ibiza hatchback in 2017 to "give a more sensitive touch to the automotive world".
The SEAT Ibiza 1.0 TSI 115PS. Image credit: https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/road-tests/seat/seat-ibiza-10-tsi-115ps-2017-road-test/
Brazilian designer shoe brand Melissa claimed to have always used the said color in some of their shoe designs over the last two decades, and they became very much aware that in the last two years, rose gold is fashionable with both women and men.
The color has indeed become gender neutral.
In fact, one British high street fashion retailer New Look confirmed that rose gold is now an ‘essential neutral’ color in the wardrobes of their customers, particularly shoes, bags and jewellery.
It's not just the women who have embraced the color but the men too. And why not?
Many male icons have embraced pink. John Wayne wore a pink shirt in “Rio Lobo.” John Cougar Mellencamp sang about little pink houses: not just for little girls but “for you and me”. Elvis Presley (right) wore lots of pink and even had a perfectly serviceable blue Cadillac painted pink. And later, the “Pink Cadillac” would also become a Bruce Springsteen song and a Clint Eastwood movie.
It has been said that pink was preferred as a foil to demonstrate male toughness – and really saying, “That’s right, I’m so tough I can rock this”. Like Hulk Hogan wearing that pink tutu in “Mr. Nanny”.
Anyway, rose gold has definitely had a big impact on sales and demand for products across fashion, jewellery, beauty, weddings and bridal couture. Including rose gold wedding cakes and other wedding props.
As a marketer, I guess if that’s the preferred color of customers – then that’s the color they’ll get.
It's about what the consumer wants that matters!
My speech was from the Humorously Speaking manual, project #2 Leave Them With a Smile and it was titled The Day My Best Friend Died 
