trendresearch lidewij edelkoort - trend travel

Trendwatcher Lidewij Edelkoort 

One of my personal favorites when it comes to trend watching is Lidewij Edelkoort.
A little background information about Lidewij:
she is globally known for her creation of innovative trend books and audiovisuals, which she has been doing since the 1980s. In these books and audiovisuals Lidewij focusses mostly on lifestyle analysis and research, which she conducts for the world's most leading brands. She announces the concepts, colors and materials which will be in fashion two or more years in advance. In this way she and her closely-knit teams are interpreting the evolution of society and the signals of consumer tastes to come, without forgetting the economic reality.

Lidewij is Paris based (even though she is dutch) and gets to travel a lot. To express the inspiration that comes from travel, she founded a special page for it on her website, called: trend travel. It's a bundle of photographs taken by different inspiring people in different cities and countries across the globe. I've put some of my favorites below.

Berlin by Imke Klee

Berlin by Imke Klee

Marrakech by Ben Lambers

Marrakech by Ben Lambers

Marrakech by Ben Lambers

new developments

As you may know I am a student marketing, communications and advertising in Amsterdam. I am currently in my 3rd year, which means doing an internship is a part of the course. So last week I started my internship at a company that focusses on something I'm really passionate about: trend watching. The company is called Trendslator. Which, the name gives it away really, is a pioneer in researching and translating trends to businesses and branches. It offers a way of thinking for the development of new and updated strategies and concepts. As a part of this 'futuring' (the development of a vision on the future) Trendslator releases one trendbook (MOOD) a year with seven trends for the upcoming year plus clear translations for each trend. Trendslator is already trend hunting for the upcoming MOOD14 and the fun part is: I will be doing a lot of trend hunting as well! 

But of course I will still be trend hunting and blogging on this blog. I will keep you posted, for now: have a great weekend!

For more info about Trendslator check: http://trendslator.nl/bureau/english-summary

or send me an e-mail at: marlinda@trendslator.nl

the future as seen in the 60ies

From the 60ies on, many visualizations have been made about 'the future'. Some of them completely irrelevant with robots, flying spaceships and aliens, but every once in a while those predictions are actually spot on right. Like the prediction of the mobile phone, long before it was made. This video made by the British government was made to advertise an ideal Britain overseas and contains some interesting thoughts about 'the future' in the sixties. See it for yourself :)

a compilation of New York Fashion Week

Even though Milan Fashion Week is already in full swing, I didn't want to make you miss out on some of New York Fashion Week's (MBFW) SS13 highlights.

For me it was all about silhouettes, colors, fabrics and of course: forecasting. What is their outlook on 2013? What will the future have in store for us?
Please take a look on (for me) very interesting and exciting things that went down in New York City. 

Angel Sanchez

Arise Magazine

Arise Magazine

Alexander Wang SS2013 - Watcha waitin' for, put your back in it, put, put your back in it
Although many designers used a lot of vibrant colors in their SS collection, Wang really stood out because of his sober (well in fact: non-excisting) use of colors. A part from a glow-in-the-dark range, the collection was completely in black, white, greys and beige.

For Wang it started out with the urban uniform: the t-shirt, the board shirt, the parka and creating a tension between structure and fluidity. To whole collection is based on embracing strength. Strong and graphic are keywords in this collection.
This resulted in the use of sharp silhouettes and rigid fabrics like leather and neoprene (rubber), while maintaining a fluidity by adding a lot of cut outs. What I especially liked about the show is that it all came together so well: the designs, the location and of course the music. Wang gave a very clear vision on the future during this tough times "Watcha waitin' for, put your back in it"


The full Alexander Wang SS13 show

Arise Magazine

Badgley Mischka

Bcbgmaxazria

Bibhu Mohapatra

J. Mendel

Marc by Marc Jacobs

Maison Martin Margiela

Maison Martin Margiela

Naeem Khan

Naeem Khan

Naeem Khan

Nicole Miller

Nicole Miller

Rebecca Minkoff

Richard Chai

Supima

Supima

Sea of vacancy in The Netherlands

Out here in the Netherlands we often call our country full, overloaded and overcrowded. This is true, to some extent. The Netherlands are full, full with empty buildings that is.
Rietveld Landscape made a project called 'zee leegstand' which translates into 'sea of vacancy'. This art project portraits vacancy buildings in the Netherlands. On a weekly basis seven farms, two churches and one monastery a month are being added to the already really long list of empty usesless buildings.

The so called bottleneck in this whole issue doesn't lie at the creative industry, nor the government. The problem lies with authorities that don't want those buildings to get a temporary use. With the project Rietveld Landscape hopes to create awareness and stimulate creative solutions for this urgent matter.
After 20 years of wealth, luxury, opportunities and innovation we now find ourselves in a time where we need to contemplate. Now is the time to follow a different path and take our shaky financial status and create a change.

want more information about the project?
Go to:
www.rietveld landscape
Avro kunstuur special Architecturen (dutch only)

inspirational footage part two

trends & textiles

I truly believe that when it comes to trendforecasting, colors and textiles are so very important.
Ever since i was a little girl, i seem to be drawn to them. You would not believe the amount of textiles and colorcards you will find under my bed. To make a long (and maybe boring?) story short:

Trend ugly food

The food, the bad and the ugly

On an everyday basis there are tons of vegetables and fruits thrown away because they don’t raise up to our ideal image of a vegetable or fruit. A paprika with a face? Thrown away. A courgette with 3 parts? Thrown away. If a product does not meet our expectations (when it comes to looks) it ends up in the garbage.

Us throwing away perfectly fine food, is a shocking fact, especially when you think about all the people in the world that don’t have enough to eat.  Ugly Food is a Dutch initiative that invokes farmers and producers to give this Ugly Food a second chance.

More information at: www.uglyfood.com  (dutch only)