Lidewij de Gerarda Hillegonda Edelkoort, often called Li, (born 29 August 1950) is a Dutch trend forecaster, someone who anticipates future

fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

and design trends.Euronews August 2008 She has been the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Trend Union since 1986.

Early life

Edelkoort was born on 29 August 1950 in

Wageningen Wageningen () is a municipality and a historic city in the central Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. It is famous for Wageningen University, which specialises in life sciences. The municipality had a population of in , of which many t ...

The Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Her parents are Jan Edelkoort and Hillegonda van der Spek. She attended the Academy of Fine Arts, Arnhem, receiving a bachelors degree in Fashion in 1972.

Career

Edelkoort began her career as a fashion coordinator at the Amsterdam department store

De Bijenkorf De Bijenkorf (; literally, "the beehive") is a chain of high-end department stores in the Netherlands, with its flagship store on Dam Square in Amsterdam. The chain is owned by Selfridges Group, which also owns Britain's Selfridges and Ireland's B ...

.Brief biography at Fashionmission, June 2006 After finishing her degree at

ArtEZ ArtEZ University of Arts ( nl, ArtEZ hogeschool voor de kunsten) is an art academy in Netherlands. ArtEZ combines several art institutes and art disciplines with branches in Arnhem, Enschede, and Zwolle. In its name the A stands for Arnhem, the E f ...

, in 1975 she relocated to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, where she set up as an independent trend consultancy. She soon created the consultancy 'Trend Union', a trend forecasting service based in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Trend Union provides bi-annual trend forecasting books for the fashion and design community with colour and lifestyle information. She then founded Studio Edelkoort, a consultancy bureau, and opened two offices in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

(Edelkoort Inc) and

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

(Edelkoort East). In September 2015 she was hired to oversee a new

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

design program at

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

, where she currently serves as Dean of Hybrid Studies. She has helped to shape products for international brands, advising on product identity and development strategy, and her clients have included

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

, Camper,

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

, Moooi, and

Douwe Egberts Douwe Egberts is a Dutch brand of coffee which is majority-owned by JDE Peet's. It was founded in Joure, Netherlands, by Egbert Douwes in 1753 as De Witte Os ("The White Ox"), a general grocery shop. The company later started dealing specifically ...

. In the beauty industry, Studio Edelkoort's has developed concepts and beauty products for Estée Lauder,

Lancôme Lancôme () is a French luxury perfumes and cosmetics house that distributes products internationally. Lancôme is part of the L'Oréal Luxury Products division, which is its parent company and offers luxury skin care, fragrances, and makeup at ...

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French personal care company headquartered in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine with a registered office in Paris. It is the world's largest cosmetics company and has developed activities in the field concentrating on hair color, sk ...

Shiseido is a Japanese multinational cosmetic company founded in Tokyo, Japan in 1872. Its product categories consist of: skin care, makeup, body care, hair care, and fragrances. The company is one of the oldest cosmetic companies in the world and ...

Dim Dim may refer to: * Dim, a rhinoceros beetle in the 1998 Disney/Pixar animated film ''A Bug's Life'' * ''Dim'' (album), the fourth studio album by Japanese rock band The Gazette * Dim, Amur Oblast, a rural locality in Amur Oblast, Russia * Dim, ...

, and

Gucci Gucci (, ; ) is an Italian high-end luxury fashion house based in Florence, Italy. Its product lines include handbags, ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories, and home decoration; and it licenses its name and branding to Coty, Inc. for fragrance ...

. She is the art director and co-publisher of the magazine ''View on Colour''.in ''one piece'' Kim DeMarco's blog, 15 May 2007 This looks at trends in colour taste with a view to their influence on fashion, graphics, industrial design, packaging, cosmetics and many other areas. She is also publisher of ''Interior View'' magazine.Li Edelkoort brief biography
at Design Indaba Magazine, 2002. Accessed August 2008 She launched the photo-magazine ''Bloom'' in 1998, which she describes as "horti-cultural", because it charts the changing trends in flowers and the way their images are used.Suzy Menkes, ''International Herald Tribune'', June 2001 She is involved in the non-profit humanitarian organization ''Heartwear'' which helps third world producers market their goods in the west through a mail order catalogue. The profits return to the producers' communities. In 1999 she was elected Chairwoman of the

Design Academy Design Academy Eindhoven is an interdisciplinary educational institute for art, architecture and design in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The work of its faculty and alumni have brought it international recognition, and is widely regarded as one of the w ...

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Designboom April 2000 In 2011, Edelkoort launched the website and social media platform calle
TrendTablet
She described the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

as an opportunity in that the global disruption of travel and of the supply chain from China might trigger new forms of local sourcing and production."... the celebrated 69-year old design industry advisor pictured Covid-19 as a sobering force that will temper our consumerist appetites and jet-setting habits" while herself speaking at conference in South Africa: https://qz.com/1812670/a-design-trends-forecaster-calls-the-coronavirus-an-amazing-grace-for-the-planet/amp/

Awards and honors

The British design magazine i-D listed her among the world's 40 most important designers and

Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

named her one of the 25 most influential fashion experts of our day.The Business World's Trend Prophet, Symrise. 2008. On 22 February 2008, on behalf of the French Minister of Culture Didier Grumbach, President of the French Fédération de la Couture, Edelkoort was invested with the

Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

in recognition of her artistic and literary creative contribution to France and international culture.Lidewij Edelkoort receives French honour
Design.nl. Editor Design.nl 22-02-2008 Edelkoort also received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Art from the United Kingdom's

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as a new university in 1992, although its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design, w ...

, at the university's awards ceremony on 15 July 2008.Arts Review 11 July 2008 On 26 November 2012, she received an award for her oeuvre of work from the Dutch foundation Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. She lives in Paris.

References

Meet trend prophet Li Edelkoort
Euronews, Accessed August 2008.

at Designboom on 14.04.2000. Accessed August 2008

By Maura Egan, New York Times, Style Magazine, November 7, 2004. Accessed August 2008.

Symrise. 2008.
Flower!
By Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune, Published June 19, 2001
The Forecaster
in ''one piece''

Kim DeMarco Kim or KIM may refer to: Names * Kim (given name) * Kim (surname) ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties **** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948 ** Kim, Vietnamese fo ...

's blog, 15 May 2007
Brief biography at Fashionmission.nl
1 June 2006 . Accessed August 2008.
Li Edelkoort to receive honorary degree from Nottingham Trent University
Arts Review 11 July 2008.

External links

Lidewij Edelkoort
website
Edelkoort Inc

TrendTablet
website and social media platform * http://www.heartwear.eu/
Design talent curated by Li Edelkoort

Latest interview with C.B.Liddell, Metropolis magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edelkoort, Lidewij 1950 births Living people Dutch designers Dutch fashion Futurologists People from Wageningen Compasso d'Oro Award recipients