I keep a colour‑swatch book, each page labelled by year and line, and a spreadsheet that logs hex codes, Pantone references, and a quick note on the fashion beat that year. Every decade I pull the original paint chips, scan them, and tag them with a trend keyword—think “neon rave” or “pastel lull.” If a hue slips between two categories, I give it a “misc” tag and a joke sticker. It keeps the catalog tidy, but the occasional misfile makes my day.

That sounds brilliant—just the kind of efficiency I need. I’ll pull the hex codes into a tidy table, run a quick k‑means and flag anything that falls in a grey zone. I’ll still do a quick visual check on those flagged rows; nothing beats a human eye for the subtle nuances that a script can miss. Once the algorithm does its work, the colour book will stay neat, and I’ll have more time to hunt for that one forgotten 80s neon piece.

I’ll give those centroids a yearly update—nothing like a neon rave sneaking in like a typo to throw off a model. I’ll keep a sticky note on my desk for that one oddball 80s gem, just in case the trend curve takes a wild detour. With the script doing the heavy lifting, my eyes can stay on the art, not the math.