Edda Gimnes

Edda Gimnes is a Norwegian womenswear designer who graduated from the London College of Fashion in 2015, when she set up her own brand, EDDA. Her aim is to continue combining fashion-meets arts in new and unexpected ways, focusing on naïve cuts and visually striking graphic prints. Edda draws a lot with her non- dominant hand, which adds an element of unaffected innocence to her designs and illustrations. The core identity of the brand is naivety, playfulness, imperfection and quirkiness. She has dressed Lady Gaga, Gigi Hadid and Lena Dunham, and her work has been featured in Vogue UK, Vogue Italia, Vogue Germany, Instyle, Garage, Interview, Elle and New York Times, among others.

@edzgimnes
edda-gimnes.com

Kiki van Eijk

Kiki grew up in in the Netherlands. She spent her youth immersed in nature, daydreaming and drawing. She is now one of the most accomplished names of Dutch design. She studied at the Design Academy of Eindhoven where she met her future partner, Joost van Bleiswijk. Inspired by a childlike sense of wonder and the smallest details of the everyday, Kiki’s world is whimsical and colourful, lyrical and personal, yet refined by a rigorous attention and skillful craftsmanship.  Since establishing her studio in 2000, following her graduation Cum Laude from the Design Academy Eindhoven, Kiki has produced a unique body of work that spans from furniture design to textiles to experimental art installations and works on paper. Her independent sculptural work has been presented in museums, galleries and fairs worldwide, including Basel, London, Paris, Milan, New York, Tokyo and Rome.  Her collaborations include brands such as Hermès, Google, Saint-Louis, Cor Unum, Bisazza, Häagen-Dazs, Serax, Bernhardt Design and Nodus. In recent years she has collaborated with companies and institutions like Coachella, Textielmuseum, Zuiderzee Museum, Noord Brabants Museum, Design Academy Eindhoven, Venice Projects, Rijksmuseum, Centraal Museum Utrecht and private collectors. In 2026, she co-designed the scenography for Inner Child: Playing with Design with Joost and their two young children, Puk and Ko.

@kikiandjoost

James Victore

James Victore is an artist, author, and activist who teaches people how to illuminate their individual gifts in order to achieve personal greatness. Described as part Darth Vader, part Yoda, James is the designer and creative thought leader whom people look to to find clarity and purpose in their life and work. He is widely known for his timely wisdom and impassioned views about design and its place in the world. At the helm of his independently run design studio, James continually strives to make work that is sexy, strong and memorable; work that tows the line between the sacred and the profane. James’ work has been exhibited (twice!) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and is represented in the permanent collections of museums worldwide including the Louvre in Paris, the Stedelijk in Amsterdam and the Library of Congress. His clients include Adobe, MailChimp, Starbucks, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Aveda, Time and Esquire Magazines, Moet & Chandon, and The City of New York.   

jamesvictore.com

Jonathan Bocca

Jonathan Bocca is a designer based in Lucca. After completing his studies at IED in Florence and UAL in London, Jonathan spent time at the Fabrica Resear making objects from paper pulp as a mental break while writing his thesis. Since then, the technique has become his main practice, perfecting its recipes, exploring new armatures and scaling volumes up to the size of sofas. During the pandemic when he was first investigating pulp, Jonathan questioned what kind of a designer he wanted to be? Independent was the resolute answer. This direction includes Vestigia, an autonomous pop-up salon he cofounded to turn collectible design fairs into less serious, more accessible experiences.

@jonathanbocca
job-jonathanbocca.com

Thanos Paspaliaris

Thanos Paspaliaris is a designer and sculptor based in the Netherlands. Trained in marble craftsmanship at the Tinos Art School and shaped by the experimental approach of Design Academy Eindhoven, he bridges raw imagination and physical reality. In his collection Can you make a candy table? Thanos acts as fabricator and translator for children’s uninhibited visions. He treats the children as directors, freeing the design process from the self-limiting logic adults bring to design. Through professional craftsmanship, he turns their wild, hand-drawn lines into collectible furniture that stays faithful to the raw honesty of the original sketches.

mintgallery.co.uk/product/good-sea-dressoir

Ype de Boer 

Ype de Boer is a writer and philosopher, working on metaphysics and philosophical anthropology at Radboud University Nijmegen and as extraordinary professor in philosophy at North-West University in South-Africa. His main interest concerns the intersection of ethics, ontology and imagination: in what way do perceptions and conceptions of reality translate to ethical ways of life? What is the role of the imagination in our understanding of reality and how do we shape our lives? Such questions guide his books, articles and essays on the fiction of Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, on the role and value of sex in contemporary western society, on the so-called ‘Happiness Industry’ and on the philosophy of contemporary Italian thinker Giorgio Agamben. He is the recipient of the Legatum Stolpianum 2024, a five-yearly science award for the best dissertation in ethical philosophy developed at a Dutch University. His most recent English monograph is Agamben’s Ethics of the Happy Life. Beyond Nihilism and Morality (2024).

ru.nl/en/people/boer-y-de

Lidewij Edelkoort

Co-Founder World Hope Forum

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 co-founded the World Hope Forum with Philip Fimmano as a platform to inspire the creative community to rebuild a better society. Launched in 2020, PROUD SOUTH is a mesmerising visual book that celebrates the creative forces from the southern parts of the planet. Through the colourful and expressive lens of contemporary fashion, photography, styling and art, Edelkoort and Lili Tedde bring together emerging and established talents from wide and far, illustrating that the axis of global creativity has indeed dramatically shifted. In 2025, Edelkoort is launching a second edition of PROUD SOUTH focusing on craft and design. Of the movement, she says, “A southern generation of creatives is standing up, expressing local craft, embracing regional materials, recognising ancestral practices and cherishing indigenous values.”

@lidewijedelkoort