AVANT - GARDE Home & Lifestyle 2025
design by paola lenti, photo by ruy teixeira
Tuesday, October 3rd
8:00 AM - 10:00 AM West Coast
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM New York
Program
times are New York EST
11:00 AM Welcome
11:15 AM Presentation of the Lifestyle book 2025, Avant-Garde
12:00 PM Break of 10 minutes
12:15 PM Presentation of the new book UXUA UTOPIA
12:45 PM Q&A discussion & brainstorming with Li
Tickets
$320 General Admission
$220 Current Trend Union Subscribers
Today, one can detect a rebirth of the Avant-Garde, with a growing unease around super-rich excesses and their overwhelming governance of society, as well as a nauseating sense of waste from fast fabricate mass-produced goods. Both polluting not only the planet but also our culture, jeopardising our mental and financial health. This malaise creates a violent atmosphere where people take defence into their own hands, and where opposing parties have become unable to listen to each other. It seems that society is moving out of control fast and unrest or even civil war is to be expected. The brutal language of our politicians doesn’t help to ease the pain. It seems that we are on the brink of a cultural conflict and therefore the creative forces in the world start to unite by combatting violence with beauty. An arresting form of elaborate design and craft brings along a militant point of view that makes excess desirable and celebration a necessity. For us battle opposing citizens, culture is the best defence where the intuitive becomes the guiding principle, the instinctive the way to go, the intelligence of human origin.
We all need to be united at the forefront of good practice and human kindness, choosing quality over quantity – and be aware, that isn’t a question of money. In this forecast, the same ideas are generated for the monumental and the domestic, the expensive and the affordable, the absolutely great and the infinitely small. All people can join in the same sublime ambition, sharing identical, original ways of creation. The consumer becomes the collector, curating their own existence.
-L.E
Li Edelkoort is a trend forecaster, publisher, humanitarian, design educator and exhibition curator. From 2015-2020 she was the Dean of Hybrid Design Studies at Parsons in New York where she founded a Textile Masters and the New York Textile Month festival. Her thought-provoking writings and podcasts have become increasingly popular at a time when she is regarded as an activist and champion for change. In 2020, she founded the World Hope Forum as a platform to inspire the creative community to rebuild a better society. She is also on the Creative Council for all of Gap Inc.’s fashion brands, advising the group on creative innovation and sustainable practice. In 2022, Edelkoort collaborated with Polimoda in Florence to establish an innovative new textile masters called From Farm to Fabric to Fashion.
@lidewijedelkoort @worldhopeforum @newyorktextilemonth @edelkoort.editions