This deep brown-red colour is not to everybody’s taste, but it is actually very versatile.

Some call it elegant and classy. Others have only one word for it: yuck.

However, let’s not dismiss out of hand the colour Pantone people declared as the colour of 2015.

Marsala is a town in Sicily and (more to the point) name of a wine produced there. Depending on the type of grapes used, Marsala can be golden, amber or ruby red. It is, of course, the deep brown-red variety of the Marsala wine that lends its name to the colour of 2015.

Despite a not-too-enthusiastic reception in social media, the images below will doubtlessly convince you that Marsala can indeed be “subtly seductive”. This rich earthly hue gets a special lift when paired with sky blue, silver, green, gold yellow or beige.

And in case you’re wondering, Marsala looks great on men too:

The colour of the year title implies that the chosen hue will appear not only in clothing, but also in the kitchen and dining room (tabletop, small appliances, linens), in the living room (carpet, couch, cushion, lamp shades), as well as in cosmetics (lipstick, nail polish, blush). And if everything else fails… grab a bottle of the deep-red  Marsala wine and toast with it. Or use it for cooking up a chicken Marsala dinner.

Indeed, talk about versatility!