Bird Watch

"L" is for lavender.

The color of Generation X's world is . . . purple? Just when we thought purple's popularity had peaked--say, two years ago--we're spotting new outbreaks of purple rain.

Impressively, trade association Color Marketing Group (CMG) cited four shades of purple in its roundup of hot consumer product colors for 1999. CMG pegged both a lavenderish purple and a brown-tinged purple in its forecast of commercial colors to watch for in 2000.

Youthful, color-enthusiastic Gen Xers are said to be largely responsible for purple's popularity. But if everything from makeup to home accessories are plum pickings, surely more than a few baby boomers are lost in a purple haze as well.

This article was originally published in the October 1998 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Bird Watch.