Li Edelkoort
Lidewij Edelkoort, often called Li, (born 1950, Wageningen) is a Dutch trend forecaster, someone who anticipates future fashion and design trends.
Edelkoort began her career as a fashion coordinator at the Amsterdam department store De Bijenkorf. After finishing her degree at ArtEZ, in 1975 she relocated to France, where she set up as an independent trend consultancy. She soon created the consultancy 'Trend Union', a trend forecasting service based in Paris. 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 (Edelkoort Inc) and Tokyo (Edelkoort East).
She has helped to shape products for international brands, advising on product identity and development strategy, and her clients have included Coca-Cola, Nissan, Camper, Siemens, Moooi, and Douwe Egberts. In the beauty industry, Studio Edelkoort's has developed concepts and beauty products for Estée Lauder, Lancôme, L'Oréal, Shiseido, Dim, and Gucci.
She is the art director and co-publisher of the magazine View on Colour. 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. 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, Eindhoven, Netherlands, where she served until 2008. In 2011, Edelkoort launched the website and social media platform called TrendTablet. The British design magazine i-D listed her among the world's 40 most important designers and Time magazine named her one of the 25 most influential fashion experts of our day.
On February, 22 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 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 the university's awards ceremony on July 15, 2008.