Lidewij Edelkoort – Keynote Speaker

Lidewij Edelkoort is one of the world’s most famous trend forecasters. She is an intuitive thinker who travels the world studying the evolution of socio-cultural trends before sharing this information with her clients in industries as diverse as fashion, textiles, interiors, cars, cosmetics, retail and food.

Under her Paris-based company Trend Union, Edelkoort creates trend books two or more years ahead that are tools used by strategists, designers and marketeers at international brands. Since 1992, Edelkoort’s magazines have helped redefine the publishing medium, acting as inspirational style bibles that have become ideograms of their time. View on Colour, InView and Bloom are trend tools used by creative professionals and avid amateurs around the world.

Lidewij Edelkoort has worked for some of the world’s best-known companies; Coca-Cola, Nissan, Time Warner Cable, Esprit, and Lacosteamong others. Edelkoort and her studio have created concepts for food retailers, department stores, restaurants, hotels, entertainment, fashion, accessories, lifestyle and cosmetics companies: Camper, Disney, Estée Lauder, Galeries Lafayette, GAP, Jean Patou, Joyce, L’Oréal, Mattel, Marks & Spencer, Seibu, Seiko, Siemens, Shiseido and Whirlpool among their many clients.

In the textile industry, Edelkoort has advised Première Vision, Pitti Filati, Prato Expo, Woolmark, Luigi Botto, Cone Denim, Cerruti, Rubelli, Ermenegildo Zegna, Mohair South Africa, the Netherlands Interieur Instituut and the Como Industrial Union of silk. The trend books she creates for Trend Union are sold to companies from Armani to Zegna in all price-point markets from Zara to Prada. Her other trend books address the future of colour, beauty, pattern, well-being, architecture and lifestyle.

Lidewij Edelkoort has also been asked by numerous banks, insurance agencies, management companies and real estate developers to present lifestyle trends that reveal how clients will live in the future, including investing in assets and finance: presentations and brainstorms for companies such as Accenture, ABN Amro, Bouwfonds, Rabobank, the Swiss Bankers Association and the Swiss Real Estate Developers Association (SVIT).

In 1999 she was elected Chairwoman of the Design Academy, Eindhoven, Netherlands, where she served until 2008. Edelkoort launched the website and social media platform called TrendTablet in 2011. She was listed among the world’s 40 most important designers by the British design magazine i-D and Time magazine named her one of the 25 most influential fashion experts of our day. The French Minister of Culture Didier Grumbach, President of the French Fédération de la Couture, invited Edelkoort to work with the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in recognition of her artistic and literary creative contribution to France and international culture. Edelkoort also received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Art from the United Kingdom’s Nottingham Trent University, at an awards ceremony in 2008. Edelkoort received an award for her oeuvre of work from the Dutch foundation Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds in 2012.