Véronique Hyland

Véronique Hyland’s 2022 book Dress Code: Unlocking Fashion from The New Look to Millennial Pink was hailed as one of the best books of 2022 by The New Yorker, Esquire, Fortune, the Financial Times, and Town & Country. To celebrate the anniversary of its launch, we have collaborated with the author and ELLE Fashion Features Director on a fragrance inspired by a color trend she first reported on for The Cut in 2016, coining the term “Millennial Pink.” An essay about the phenomenon entitled “Who Owns Millennial Pink?” was included in her book, and can be enjoyed as an excerpt here.

Dress Code is available to purchase: Harper Collins | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

  • millennial pink

    Millennial Pink

    “The titration of actual pinkness varies a little, but it’s still a fairly narrow spectrum — from salmon mousse to gravlax, to extend the metaphor. Call it ‘millennial pink”…it’s ironic pink, pink without the sugary prettiness. It’s a non-color that doesn’t commit, whose semi-ugliness is proof of its sophistication.”

    — Véronique Hyland, 2016

    “When I revisit my original story, the whole phenomenon feels more insidious than I once thought, especially as I consider how the past few years have unfolded. I wonder if this period in fashion history, with its toothless pastels and sweet, ruffled, Regency-style minidresses—the sartorial version of millennial pink—will come to be seen as analogous to the ’80s fashion backlash against strong-shouldered power suits worn with sneakers.

    …One of the most confounding things about the pink-tinted economy is the way it’s selling back existing things to us and making them ‘new,’ painting them as essentials of self-actualization and empowerment. An elite women’s club isn’t new. Nor is makeup. Nor is a modest floral garment. Nor is pink. What we have here is a rebranding of the reactionary.”

    — Véronique Hyland in Dress Code, 2022

    A shimmering, noncommittal pastel: ruby chocolate enveloped in white musk

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