Li Edelkoort presents
Autumn/Winter 2024—25 Trend Webinar
Photo Katerina Plotnikova
Wednesday, May 3rd
8:00 AM - 10:30 AM West Coast PDT
11:00 AM - 1:30 PM New York EDT
17:00 - 19:30 Paris CEST
Programme
New York EDT times
11:00 AM SWADDLING: A/W 2024–25 Colour & Knitwear Forecast, presented live by Li Edelkoort
11:30 AM HIBERNATION: A/W 2024–25 Fashion & Textile Forecast, presented live by Li Edelkoort
12:15 PM HIBERNATION: A/W 2024–25 Audiovisual Presentation
1:00 PM Q&A Brainstorm with Li
1:30 PM Approximate End
Tickets
General Admission $300
Current Trend Union Clients $200
Special discounts for faculty, students & freelancers
tickets include a miniature A/W 2024—25 trend booklet! Please enter your postal address at checkout
contact ragna@edelkoort.com for questions
SWADDLING
A/W 2024–25 Colour & Knitwear Forecast
Living through the most devastating period since the Second World War is taking its toll and spinning society out of control, leaving deep scars of conflict and mental problems of confusion, especially amongst the youngest generations. The human condition is under impending nuclear war in Europe, a civil war in America and two major conflicts in Asia. The northern half of the planet seems ready to explode, and with it comes a recession, an energy crisis and a pandemic that is still looming around. On top of it all is global warming that creates floods, fires and draughts and threatens to eradicate the human race.
Therefore, design and fashion react and swing in protection mode, wanting to take care and heal, swaddling their collectors, holding tight and caring for people of all ages. Swaddling is usually used to give infants the feeling of the safety they crave after leaving the protective warmth of the womb. The effects of such hermetic wrapping are visible in the overwhelming return of knitwear as a category of its own; no longer just an afterthought, it is a head to toe, day in day out, morning to evening phenomenon to reckon with. Hibernating while rolled up in sweaters, cardigans and blankets to help the body combat emotional stress and slow down the metabolism in order to use less energy of all kinds. Conditioning us as a survival mechanism.
HIBERNATION: Saving Essential Energies
A/W 2024–25 Fashion & Textile Forecast
The fear of an escalating war and inflation, coupled with generalised social unrest and threatening political conflict, influences people to invent alternative ways to survive winters by keeping temperatures lower, wearing clothing in layers, embracing knitwear and adopting blankets at home. We cook one-pan meals to save gas, we huddle together as a group to keep warm and we cuddle up with loved ones to stay cosy. We swaddle our new-borns and imitate the gesture for our own wellness at any age. We learn how to underdress, to double dress, and we protect ourselves with heavier outer garments. Scarves and gloves are back, as are knitted socks, caps, cowls and balaclavas. Worn with fur-lined slippers and boots. Even with clement winter weather, the preparations are laborious and bring in a new vision of fashions that are solution-driven but also innovative and of another, more absolute order.
These multiple, protective behaviour patterns resemble the way some animals get ready to hibernate and that is why this forecasting volume is dedicated to, and inspired by, the various ways of enduring winter, by lowering thermostats, digging in processes, nesting and burrowing, and the transformations of colour and camouflage. Whereas some mammals go into a deep sleep for most of winter, others find solace in drying, freezing, shivering or even the inactive state of torpor. With hoarding and gathering together are other survivalist instincts. These variations are manifold and fascinating as fashion fantasies! We people have a lot to learn from the solutions animals and even plants and trees have found to beat the weather at its own game, surviving and thriving almost because of its severeness.
LIDEWIJ EDELKOORT is arguably the world's most renowned trend forecaster, working in industries from design and fashion to food, architecture, beauty, communication, automotive and retail. Founded in 1986, her company Trend Union produces trend tools for strategists, designers and marketers at brands from Zara to Prada. She is also a publisher, humanitarian, educator, and exhibition curator. Edelkoort has been named one of the Most Influential People in Fashion and one of the Most Influential People in Design. 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. From 1998-2008 she was Chairwoman of Design Academy Eindhoven before moving to New York from 2015-2020 where she was Dean of Hybrid Design Studies at Parsons, establishing an MFA Textile masters and New York Textile Month. In 2020, in response to the covid-19 pandemic, she founded the World Hope Forum as a platform to inspire the creative community to rebuild a better society. Since 2022, Edelkoort collaborates with Polimoda in Florence where she has created an innovative new textile masters called From Farm to Fabric to Fashion.
@lidewijedelkoort