Lidewij Edelkoort is arguably the world's most renowned trend forecaster, working across fashion, food, design, lifestyle, beauty and retail. Founded in 1986, her company Trend Union produces trend tools for strategists, designers and marketers at brands from Zara to Prada. She has been named one of the most influential people in both fashion and design.
From 1998 to 2008 she was Chairwoman of Design Academy Eindhoven, and from 2015 to 2020 Dean of Hybrid Design Studies at Parsons in New York, where she established an MFA in Textiles and the annual New York Textile Month. Her latest publications — Proud South, Proud South Craft and Uxua Utopia — celebrate the creative talent of the Global South.
Her relationship with El Espartano began in 2017 and has fostered a sustained exchange, with a continuous presence at Milan Design Week over the past three years — from Garden and Instinct to ROOM, where for the first time the curator developed a rug of her own in collaboration with a company.
