Lidewij Edelkoort is one of the world’s most respected cultural forecasters, consulting for international companies in diverse industries. She is also a magazine publisher, a design educator, and an exhibition curator. Edelkoort is one of the founding members of Heartwear, a not-for-profit organization based in Paris that has worked with artisans in Benin, Morocco, and India since 1993. In 2015 her much-talked-about Anti_Fashion Manifesto was the first to raise awareness about the shifts and upheavals currently experienced in the global fashion industry, calling for a total overhaul of the system. Edelkoort is also the founder of New York Textile Month, and from 2015 to 2020 she was dean of Hybrid Design Studies at Parsons School of Design in New York, where she started an MFA textile program to merge craft and tech for a sustainable future. She received a Lifetime Achievement award from Aid to Artisans in 2005 and was honorary chair of the International Folk Art Market in 2017. Her recent book A Labour of Love, co-authored with Philip Fimmano, introduces the new makers in contemporary design, previewing an era of responsible production, circular thinking, ethical practice, and organic aesthetics. Edelkoort’s work as an agent for change culminated in the founding of the World Hope Forum in 2020 as a platform to inspire the creative community to build a better society.

edelkoort.com | @lidewijedelkoort

Portrait by Thirza Schaap.