• Lidewij Edelkoort

    • Lidewij Edelkoort

    • Director, Studio Edelkoort and Trend Union

    • Role: Advisory Board
    • Email: philip@edelkoort.com
    • Website: http://www.edelkoort.com/
    • Statement:
      The Edelkoort Group, one of the world's most renowned trend forecasters was founded by Li Edelkoort. She studied fashion and design at the School of Fine Arts in Arnhem. Upon graduation she became a buyer at the leading Dutch department store the Bijenkorf. It was there that she discovered her talent for sensing upcoming trends. Her unique ability to predict what consumers would want to buy several seasons ahead of time brought her to Paris in 1975, where she worked full time as an independent trend consultant.

      Li's work has pioneered trend forecasting as a profession, from innovative trend forums for Premire Vision in the late 1980s to long-ranging lifestyle analysis for the world's leading brands since 1990.

      The Edelkoort Group provides trend analysis and consulting services to major international companies in a wide range of sectors from cosmetics to cars, telephones to public transportation, from food and flowers to bricks and paper. Studying the links between art, fashion, design and consumer culture, the Edelkoort Group analyzes and advances the concepts, colors and materials which will be important in two or more years. Hence, "There is no creation without advance knowledge, and without design, a product cannot exist."

      Li has received continual recognition for her work in providing inspirational stimulus and fostering creative talent.
    • Professor (Chair) Peter McNeil

    • Professor (Chair) Peter McNeil

    • Foundation Professor of Fashion Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden; Professor of Design History, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

    • Role: Advisory Board
    • Email: peter.mcneil@uts.edu.au
    • Website:
      http://www.dab.uts.edu.au/research/index.html
      http://www.fashion.su.se/
    • Interest: Fashion and Eighteenth-century visual culture; Fashion and Interior Design, 18th-20th century; Constructing the fashion and design periodical; Fashion and the ‘queer trace’
    • Statement:
      Peter McNeil conducts research in the fields of fashion studies, design history and art history, with an emphasis upon fashion and social identity, fashion and representation, and fashion and consumption. His work on Enlightenment Dress asks: how do the cultural meanings of English and French men’s dress relate to broader Enlightenment philosophical, quasi-scientific and commercial culture (c1650-1800)? How and why was masculine dress transformed in this period? What was the relationship between publishers, writers and illustrators of the fashion design press that first emerged in Enlightenment France? Did philosophe critics provide the narrative structure and imaginary settings that continue to animate contemporary advertising?

      Within twentieth-century culture he is interested in the emergence of a theatricalised public boutique and private domestic interior orchestrated by couturiers from the late-nineteenth century; the relationship of the couturier and other design ‘intermediaries’ (stylists, editors, ensembliers) in twentieth-century culture; the relationship of fashion to interior design and theatrical and cinematic image-making.

      Within his work on fashion and the queer trace he asks, How did queer men and women contribute to new formulations of dress in twentieth-century culture? How have changing understandings of queer sexuality, from situational, private and criminalized; to open, liberationist and commodified, impacted upon dress codes, clothing styles and bodily appearance?


    • Hilary Riva OBE

    • Hilary Riva OBE

    • Chief Executive of British Fashion Council

    • Role: Advisory Board
    • Email: hilary.riva@britishfashioncouncil.com
    • Website: http://www.britishfashioncouncil.com; www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
    • Statement:
      Hilary Riva was appointed Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council in December 2005.

      Tasked with the role of making the British Fashion Council an organisation that is able to create a sustainable future for London Fashion Week, Hilary, in partnership with both the BFC Chairman (previously Sir Stuart Rose and currently Harold Tillman) and Simon Ward, Head of Operations, has created a solid structure for the British Fashion Council, increased revenues and sponsorship from commercial partners and worked with the Mayor and the LDA to deliver a funding package to support emerging designer businesses in London.

      With a highly successful track record of turning round and managing fashion retail businesses, Hilary has been Managing Director of numerous leading high street retailers including TopShop and Warehouse and jointly led the management buyout of Principle and Warehouse from the Aracadia Group In 2001. This business, Rubicon Retail, moved from a £9m loss to a £20m profit and was sold to Shoe Studio Group in 2005.

      Hilary works pro bono for the British Fashion Council. She believes that London Fashion Week has a unique history of showcasing the best creative fashion design talents in the world and creating solid foundations for them to grow into internationally recognised businesses.

      Going forward Hilary continues to look at the future role of the British Fashion Council as a resource to nurture the growth of emerging designer businesses in the UK.

    • Professor Nigel Thrift

    • Professor Nigel Thrift

    • Vice Chancellor of University of Warwick

    • Role: Advisory Board
    • Website: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/management/vc/
    • Statement:
      My ongoing interest is in finance, working especially on the use of space and time by financial markets : International Finance - The consolidation of income streams in order to produce new borrowing opportunities. Cities and political life - With Ash Amin, I am writing a new book on how urban policies might be reinvented in order to produce new kinds of hybrid, which are more active and more democratic. Non-representational theory - This is intended to produce practical political supplements that will enliven events. In particular, the inter section with performance. Affective politics - New affective technologies doing the rounds in western democracies, and what they might portend. The history of time and the construction of events - Specifically, clocks and clock time, the address, and how new forms of movement space have come about.
    • Professor Toshio Watanabe

    • Professor Toshio Watanabe

    • Director of TrAIN Research Centre, University of the Arts London

    • Role: Advisory Board
    • Email: tpwatanabe@aol.com
    • Website: http://www.transnational.org.uk/
    • Statement:
      The main focus of my current research is transnational interactions of art with an emphasis on the issue of modernity and identity. I am particularly interested in exploring this not just in bilateral but in multilateral relationships, such as those between, Japan, China, Taiwan, India, Britain or the USA within the time span between 1850 and 1950.
      My interest in transnational relationships covers all media, but particularly architecture, garden design, watercolour painting, photography and popular graphics. Particular emphasis is put on the consumption of these art forms locally and globally.
      Projects being undertaken include following themes: the theory of modern landscape and imperial architecture in Japan, 1880s - 1940s; history and reception of modern Japanese garden; construction of Japanese Art History; British Japonisme.