From the catwalks to the consumer electronic aisles, white is, well, white-hot. Traditionally confined to dairy products and cleaning materials, its use is far more widespread today in an array of different categories.
Apple Computer is widely credited for the growing popularity of the colour white. Its iMac, launched in 2002, was innovative not just for its long neck with a screen floating above a dome-shaped based, but also for the use of white.
Apple demonstrated that a computer need not be a grey or beige box to be hidden in the office.
Designers, creative directors and brand consultants say while white is fashionable at the moment in certain product categories, it has always had an important place in the palette, for everything from consumer design and interiors to corporate identity.
"Apple used white in a different product category, that's what made it different," says Christopher Lee, creative director at Duffy, based in Singapore. "But white has always been used throughout the decades, it is not an emerging trend."
Apple was just as radical when it launched its first iMac laptop in lollipop shades, including orange and lime. But the use of white has certainly caught on.
From Motorola mobile phones to Philips wearable digital MP3 audio players, both of which hit the market last year, everybody seems to be doing it.
"White is clean, it denotes simplicity and ease. We constantly recommend it to our clients," says Debora Chatwin, managing director at brand and design consultants Enterprise IG in Hong Kong.
"A lot of clients are afraid of white space. They don't see it as a colour, but rather as the absence of colour or imagery. But white allows you to communicate. It gives 'breathing room'."
Even Absolut vodka, renowned for its award-winning bottle designs and advertising campaigns, since the first in 1979 which helped launch the TBWA advertising agency, has leapt on the bandwagon - Absolut Vanilia is packaged in a creamy-white bottle to complement the alcohol's vanilla flavouring.
Lee says white has always been a part of good design across a broad sweep of categories. He notes its recent use in a pure white sneaker from Puma, created in conjunction with Jill Sander, and also Armani's new fragrance in its ultra-minimal white tube. Then there is Martin Margiela's flagship boutique in Tokyo - an old house painted completely white with no sign marking the entrance, just white footprints.
Philips has used white before in its broad product range, from medical systems to domestic appliances and lighting. But it notes a recent explosion in the use of the colour, particularly in consumer electronics. And it's a trend the company has bought into. Its innovative white 'key ring' products, including the wearable digital audio player, won a Design for Asia award, judged by an international panel at the Hong Kong Design Centre last year.
"We define the colours, finish and materials of our products through extraction of visual trend research," says Low Cheaw Hwei, senior design director of Philips Design in Singapore.
He says the use of white in electronic products reflects the "domesticating" of technology, encapsulating a new freshness and simplicity.
Philips' wearable products have been particularly successful in Asia, as have many other pure white propositions launched globally. It seems cultural sensitivities to white, which denotes death in a traditional Chinese context, are not an issue for clients and designers any more.
"The younger designers I work with, who are all Chinese, do not play to those sensitivities when they are designing," says Chatwin. "What matters is that the colour is appropriate for the design."
But the stark white and black so prevalent on last season's catwalks is gradually being replaced with brighter shades in spring collections.
Pure white is offsetting other colours in new products and logos. One example is Hutchison Whampoa's new '3' brand. White is the stabilising factor in a logo that changes colour, gradually moving through the rainbow (or via the use of holograms on two-dimensional surfaces) to reflect the hi-tech, multi-faceted nature of the 3G mobile phone product, which encompasses a range of functions including video, email and telephony.
And trend-watchers should take note: the latest mini iPods from Apple are in creamy pastel shades of pink, blue, silver, gold and green.
