Crimson’s in Clover These Days

No matter where you look this fall, red is everywhere. From the cover of Vogue to the shelves of Williams-Sonoma. All over Pottery Barn. And sitting front and center in Crate & Barrel’s catchy Claret Sofa ad, with a slogan that seems to say it all: “It’s a very good year for red.”

Why now? Some credit the rising Latino and Asian influence. Some, the economy. “People invest in bright, rich colors like red in good times,” says Leslie Harrington, director of color and design for Benjamin Moore Paint.

Last year, sales figures for an Empire Red mixer persuaded KitchenAid to extend the color to blenders, toasters and coffee makers. Whirlpool Corp. is selling red refrigerators in Hong Kong.

Christopher Ralston, co-owner of Apartment Zero, a contemporary home-furnishings emporium in Washington, has another take: “It’s an attitude. Red is a dynamic, full-of-energy color that appeals to the digital generation.” Ralston’s shop has walls (Duron’s Red Alert, No. AC118R) and a lineup including Jonathan Adler pillows and Ron Arad’s award-winning Tom Vac stacking chairs for Vitra.

“A little red chair does for a living room what a red scarf does for black clothing,” says Bob Williams, creative director for Mitchell Gold, a furniture manufacturer that sells to Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. According to Williams, his company will be rolling out more red than ever at the High Point, N.C., furniture market next month.

Everybody agrees that red gives energy and pop to a room. The color has been shown to raise blood pressure and increase appetite as well as the frequency of eye-blinking.

Late Vogue editor Diana Vreeland was famously wild about red. She lacquered her office crimson and lavished walls, upholstery and draperies in her Park Avenue living room with an inferno-red floral chintz. (She informed her decorator, Billy Baldwin, that she wanted the room to look like “a garden in hell.”) After searching for the perfect shade, she concluded that “about the best red to copy is the color of a child’s cap in a Renaissance painting.”