ITC students present designs to Ms Grace Lant.
Student presents her design concept and prototypes which use UPW swatches.
Tina Ngan: Knitted fabric swatches with appliques of drawn yarns inspired by the state of transition between sleeping and awakening.
Leung Hiu-man: Swatches inspired by corals which are transformed into pet garment for her cat.
UPW, a leading spinner of high quality yarns, initiated a sustainable design project in January 2020 based on the inspiring theme of ‘Find the Beauty in what you have’. The company invited all BA Year 3 students who are majoring in Knitwear Design and Technology to take part in the project and provided them with used fabric swatches as the raw materials to recreate new designs. The students could freely experiment and develop their designs with the UPW swatches and other reused materials, and apply different techniques such as embroidery, crocheting and felting. The project allowed the UPW and our students to collaborate on a very meaningful project, which not only highlighted sustainability in fashion, but also encouraged our students to start thinking about the design process in different ways.
On 17 June 2020, ten students presented their design concepts and prototypes at the UPW head office. Their work is innovative and interesting, and a variety of products that were made from the UPW swatches and recycled materials were shown to Ms Grace Lant, Designer of UPW.
Ms Lant commented that the products are creative and exciting. She hopes that fashion sustainability would continue to be an integral part of future designs. After the presentation, UPW chose Tina Ngan and Leung Hiu-man as the winners for the best design, and will sponsor the yarn for their final collections next year.
The UPW yarn collection comprises woollen-spun, semi-worsted and fancy twisted yarns, all dyed and spun at their own facilities in Dongguan, China. They produce design-led luxury yarn collections with amazing colours, and supply the most respected brands and retailers worldwide with exceptional yarns. In recent years, UPW has made a corporate commitment to environmental protection and sustainability in the production process and to source natural fibres. The UPW is a member of the Better Cotton Initiative.