School of Fashion and Textiles

The School of Fashion and Textiles was established in 2022 as an independent school, extending the lineage from the Institute of Textiles and Clothing (ITC) with 65 years of history at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. SFT carries and leverages its proud history of research and curricular excellence, innovation and creativity, and entrepreneurship to be the top fashion school for nurturing and cultivating global fashion leaders for the future.

SFT’s overarching vision and the focus on sustainability, technology, and society guide us and are embedded in everything we pursue. We aim to be the leader in interdisciplinary, innovative, and collaborative endeavours necessary to push the boundaries and shape academics and industry engagements for fashion and textiles in the future. 

The School has a strong team of 50 world-class faculty members from different countries and regions, whose expertise ranges from fashion design, business, to technology, and who are dedicated to high quality teaching and high impact research. They publish widely in leading academic and industry journals, gaining international recognition for the quality of the research they have conducted. According to a report by Stanford University in 2023, 13 scholars were ranked among top 2% most-cited scientists in the world. 

By skilfully blending Eastern and Western cultures and the world’s class research capabilities, SFT offers a holistic and comprehensive range of undergraduate, taught postgraduate and research postgraduate programmes, covering disciplines ranging from design, business, to technology encompassing the entire ecosystem of fashion. The offering of programmes changes over time to meet the demand of the society, but always with the goal to educate high caliber graduates with creativity, independent thinking, and social ethics, and provide professional education to those who wish to pursue a career in the dynamic fashion and textiles industry.  

SFT is committed to cutting-edge research, and its outstanding research output, both in quantity and quality, ranks top among fashion and textile institutions in the world. It strives to serve the local and regional industries, and has made significant contributions to the development of the economies. Over the decades, many ground-breaking research initiatives and innovations have both advanced the development of the global textiles and fashion industry and helped transform Hong Kong from a manufacturing and merchandising base in the 1950s and 60s, to an international fashion design, creative and branding hub nowadays. The School's key research areas include (1) Wearable & Smart Textiles; (2) Medical Textiles & Functional Clothing; (3) Artificial Intelligence for Fashion Design; (4) Social Fashion Design; (5) Costume & Culture Design; (6) Sustainable Fashion; and (7) Digital Fashion Marketing.

To facilitate interdisciplinary research and innovation, technology transfer and collaboration with top institutions, three strategic research centres, namely, Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence in Design, Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems, and Research Institute for Sports Science and Technology have been set up.

For recruitment enquiries, please contact Ms Stella Tham at pm-stella.tham@polyu.edu.hk.