Lighting decisions directly impact costs and sales of textile products, making it important that industry experts and retailers are aware of the significant effect of lighting on apparent textile color in visual displays. In this study, a three-part investigation explored the interaction of illuminants with apparent textile color in terms of the CIELAB color difference variables: L*, a*, and b*. Results demonstrate that use of a single illuminant during instrumental color measurement does not provide adequate or accurate color quality control, since retailers use multiple types of in-store illuminants. The need to investigate LEDs as future retail illuminants is also discussed.