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Marsala is it. The color specialists at Pantone have chosen the color of 2015, a rich reddish brown they say will define consumers’ mood in the coming year.

Vintage-y, earthy and hinting at the dregs of a bottle of wine, the shade will pair well with the ’70s fashions hitting store shelves. The trendy tone is coming out in clothes, handbags, cosmetics and couch pillows.

“It has an organic and a sophisticated air,” says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, Pantone’s color advisory group.
If that brings to mind farm-to-table cuisine, bushy-but-coiffed beards and urban dwellers’ growing obsession with farm life, that is exactly the cultural phenomenon that Pantone—and the design world—are addressing here. “I was inspired by its kind of vintage spirit,” says accessories designer Koren Ray, founder of the Hobo brand of handbags and leather goods. She likes the color’s “folkloric” essence and is using it in bags and wallets.

Pantone tips off some marketing partners, such as cosmetics retailer Sephora, about the color of the year, so that they can manufacture products in the shade. Sephora is planning a collection of Marsala cosmetics. The brand has worked with Pantone in the past: It is hard to forget Sephora’s Tangerine Tango eye shadow from 2012.

Pantone also reaches out to a few brands that it notices using the color, such as Hobo. Marsala is ideal for leather goods, and it dovetails with the surprising decline of interest in black, “which has become so generic,” Hobo’s Ms. Ray says. “Women are looking for bold neutrals to replace black.” After more than 20 years at the top of her best-sellers list, black has been knocked down by browns and grays, she says.

Marsala has already appeared in recent collections of designers who are considered influential. Marsala pants, coats and dresses appeared in the spring 2015 men’s and women’s collections of Dries Van Noten, Nicolas Ghesquière’s Louis Vuitton, Raf Simons and Christopher Bailey at Burberry Prorsum.

Pillows, dishes and accent rugs in Marsala are also on the way. Kendra Scott is using it for her jewelry, though she’s calling the color Goldstone. “It makes me think of family,” Ms. Scott says. “As a culture right now, we are going back to things that are simple.” ....