Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: chocolate, mocha, cacao … whatever you call it, brown is autumn’s chicest shade

Black feels like a no-brainer for boots, handbags or coats - but if you swap it for brown, the same outfit looks more consideredThere are a bunch of names being thrown around for the colour fashion wants us to wear this season. Espresso. Chestnut. Cacao. Ganache. Coffee bean. Truffle. Mocha. Caramel. Hazelnut. Nobody seems terribly keen to call it brown. Brown has never been the sexiest word in the paintbox. Red is passion. Black is chic. Pink is romance. Blue is serenity. Brown is the colour of wheelie bins. Except that right now, brown – specifically the deep, glossy, edible-looking chocolate end of the spectrum – is probably the chicest colour you can wear.It is probably not incidental that we so often describe it in terms of what we eat or drink. When Pantone named Mocha Mousse its colour of 2025, it linked brown’s popularity to the “food-ification” of culture: the idea that coffee and chocolate represent small moments of comfort, bite-size affordable treats in anxious lives. Continue reading...