News

PolyU Patents Achievement Award 2023

PolyU has launched the Patents Achievement Award in appreciation and honour of the remarkable achievements of departments and inventors who actively engaged in IP filing. The award reflects the collective drive to foster innovation and safeguard intellectual properties. We are excited to share that the SFT is awarded the PolyU Top Patents Filing Award 2023, recognising our IP filing activities over the past five years (2019-2023). Congratulations to all the SFT inventors for your contributions!

PolyU and AELIS Couture forge innovative partnership for Fall/Winter 2024/25 Couture Collection

PolyU is excited to announce its partnership with the esteemed Paris fashion house AELIS Couture (AELIS) for the F/W 2024/25 couture collection that was showcased during the haute couture week in Paris on 27 June. Created by the legendary haute couture designer Sofia Crociani, the Collection introduces sustainable metal-coated textiles developed by SFT, blending cutting-edge technology with luxury fashion. This innovative textile technology was developed by the research team led by Professor Kinor Jiang, using developed metallising technology to place ultra-thin, nano-scale metal films onto textiles. Without discharging any polluted water or chemicals, the non-aqueous process results in textiles that are not only visually stunning but also sustainable. For this Collection, the team created a precious gold and silver coated sustainable silk organza with a metallic pearly sheen while maintaining the comfort and flexibility of traditional textiles. The collaboration with AELIS, renowned for its artful designs and sustainable approach to fashion, reflects PolyU’s commitment to advancing textile technology and its applications in the fashion industry. The integration of PolyU’s metal-coated textiles into AELIS Couture’s designs reveals a collection that embodies both style and state-of-the-art technology. Professor Christopher Chao, PolyU Vice President (Research and Innovation) said, “We are thrilled to partner with AELIS for their F/W 2024/25 couture collection. The collaboration with AELIS Couture is a shining example of how PolyU’s research can be translated into real-world applications, bridging the gap between technology and artistry in fashion. We are proud to see our sustainable innovations contribute to the creation of couture that is as technologically advanced as it is beautiful.” Ms Sofia Crociani, Founder of AELIS, expressed her excitement at the partnership, “For AELIS Couture, the project with PolyU, born after a cycle of ‘sustainable lectures’ jointly organised by PolyU and the French Consulate in Hong Kong, is the result of a wonderful effort to advance in the ecological and technological research field. Working with PolyU has been an inspiring journey. Their precious metal-coated textiles have allowed us to explore new dimensions of design and sustainability. We are proud to present a collection that reflects the synergy between PolyU’s technological expertise and our commitment to eco-conscious couture.” Through this international collaboration, PolyU joins hands with AELIS to make a bold statement in the fashion world, showcasing the potential of merging sustainability with luxury art-to-wear. The AELIS F/W 2024/25 Couture Fashion Show that took place during the “haute couture week” in Paris represents an event where innovation meets grace and elegance, setting a new standard for the future of couture.

Visit to Qingyuan Textile and Fashion Industry Transfer Park

A group of SFT staff, including Professors John Xin and Fei Bin, as well as Dr Chen Jianming visited the Qingyuan Textile and Fashion Industry Transfer Park (TFITP) on 4 and 5 June 2024. Qingyuan is the largest prefecture-level city in the Guangdong province, with an abundance of natural resources and good ecological environment. Located beside the Beijiang River, the TFITP is close to the boundaries of the Guangzhou, Zhaoqing, and Qingyuan cities, and has a convenient transportation infrastructure of railways, highways, waterways and airlines. The city is still under construction, with the target to become the fast fashion smart manufacturing base of China, with an investment of RMB 100 billion in 10,000 acres of open land. The General Secretary of Qingyuan city, Mr Lin Kecong, provided an introduction of the entire park plan to the group of visitors. Located in the same building as the TFITP are the Zhijing Technology Apparel Fabrics Museum and a branch of the National Standard Testing Center as representative service providers for the fashion and textile manufacturers nearby. These organisations are also expected to serve SFT students in their future FYP activities, as Professor John Xin mentioned during his discussion with the local director of the State Development and Investment Group Co., Ltd, Ms Guo Jingwen. The leading company in the TFITP, Zhonghua Group, has established a platform called Zhongda Fashion Technology City to attract more companies to join this park and form an integral supply chain of fashion and textiles. The director, Mr Hu Zhonghua, expressed interest in collaboration with SFT to explore innovative yarn spinning techniques. In the past, he has also enjoyed a collaboration with Donghua University in Shanghai by providing internship opportunities and positions.  The SFT delegation also visited several other companies including Tiansi Pinhui Industrial Co., Ltd., which is initiating an automatic hanger system in their smart factory for T-shirt production. The company director, Mr Shi Xuezheng, demonstrated the high efficiency and accuracy of their digital production line operated by well-trained workers from local higher vocational colleges. 

SFT staff members honoured with Long Service Award

A total of 14 staff members received the Long Service Award 2023 in recognition of their years of services at the University. The awardees have been serving in PolyU for 5 years or more, some even for 20 years: Prof. Fei Bin, Professor   Prof. Hu Hong, Professor  Dr Tracy Mok, Associate Professor Dr Chloe Ki, Associate Professor Dr Jin Lam, Associate Professor Dr Shou Dahua, Associate Professor Dr Alice Yao, Research Assistant Professor Dr Kang Zhaoxiao, Research Assistant Professor Dr Lo Kawai, Lecturer Ms Nico Liu, Instructor Mr Calvin Tiu, Scientific Officer Ms Hosana Poon, Executive Officer Mr Frankie Ling, Service Attendant Miss Eelin Ng, Research Associate SFT would like to thank these staff members for their dedicated and loyal service to PolyU. The Long Service Award Scheme has been introduced since 1990 to foster a sense of belongings among PolyU staff.

SFT showcases research and innovations at its first overseas exhibition “Flying High” in France

SFT showcased seven research projects at the inaugural “Flying High” exhibition in Paris, France, from 26 June to 1 July, under the theme of “Style in Motion” and “Sustainability in Innovation”. The projects include: [Style in Motion] AI-assisted Personal Training Gear by Professor Joanne Yip, Associate Dean AI-enhanced, wearable sensor-based training gear helps monitor posture, muscle activity and fatigue in real-time during workouts, providing immediate feedback to improve physical performance and minimise the risk of injury. Sport-specific Sports Bra Designs from Analysis of Human Dynamic Motion by Professor Yick Kit-lun An anatomically tailored sports bra employs analysis of 4D scans to enable bra design to provide precise support for the unique demands of each sport and comfort for women of all ages and sizes. Tai-Chi, Sports and Olympics by Dr Huang Tsai-chun, Assistant Professor This Tai Chi-inspired sportswear collection blends the essence of the East with the electrifying spirit of the Games’ four selected disciplines: breaking, skateboarding, surfing and climbing. Each piece is meticulously engineered to capture the spirit of these vibrant sports, analysing the fluidity and strength required to excel in each. It complements an athlete’s form and improves their performance. [Sustainability in Innovation] Anti-stain and Antiviral Vegan Leather by Professor Kan Chi-wai, Associate Dean and Professor Chris Lo (Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies, PolyU) The world’s first vegan leather boasts both anti-stain and antiviral properties. It leverages structural color technology to ensure whiteness at 90/100 without use of pigment, dye or bleaching agent, and uses silicone that avoid microplastic issues. "Building Clothing" Using Textile Waste by Dr Shou Dahua, Limin Endowed Young Scholar in Advanced Textiles Technologies and Assistant Professor “Building Clothing”, developed from textile waste, is a sustainable building envelope for thermal insulation and radiative cooling to revolutionise construction projects and help tackle the challenges of textile waste recycling. Intelligent Textiles for Interiors, Fashion and Rehabilitation by Professor Jeanne Tan Utilising computer vision and illuminating optical fibres, the intelligent textiles are developed to recognise hand and body gestures to customise colour illuminations instantly, thereby transforming conventionally passive fabrics into interactive textiles. Metal-coated Textiles with Unique Visual Effects by Professor Kinor Jiang These textiles fuse fashion and sustainability through sputtering coating technology. They are the very first to integrate material science, engineering and manufacturing for lustrous new textiles without any discharge or pollution.   At the opening reception, Prof. Christopher Choa, PolyU Vice President (Research and Innovation) remarked, “PolyU is thrilled to bring our research and innovations to Paris, a city that resonates with creativity and innovation, reflecting our own values. ‘Flying High’ is not just an exhibition, it is a testament to our dedication to making a positive impact through our research and knowledge transfer activities. We are excited to share our achievements and to foster international collaborations for a better and sustainable future.” The “Flying High” exhibition is not only witness to PolyU’s commitment to fostering global innovation and excellence in research, but also provides an exchange platform for researchers, industry experts, fashion editors and others. It coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-French diplomatic relations and the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games, highlighting the importance of international dialogue and exchange in advancing scientific and cultural understanding.

Prof. Xu Bingang’s team publishes in Advanced Materials

The effective storage of energy harvested from the environment (like sunlight, heat, and humidity) and human motion (like walking and running) is important to realise their practical applications in powering a variety of wearable electronics. However, traditional energy storage technologies are primarily designed to store energy generated from conventional sources, which are not suitable for the small amount and unstable sources of energy harvested by using flexible textile generators. To  tackle these problems, Professor Xu Bingang’s team has successfully developed hybrid capacitors and batteries that efficiently store the energy harvested from textile generators in a stable manner. To make the energy storage device wearable, his team has also made efforts to develop a series of novel wearable supercapacitor devices that range from yarn supercapacitors, 2D and 3D fabric supercapacitors, 3D nonwoven supercapacitors, to embroidered supercapacitors, which have exceptional performance and promising applications for flexible and wearable energy storage. More recently, Professor Xu Bingang and his team have made an innovative breakthrough in exploring novel materials and designs for high-performance hybrid supercapacitors to store energy. This breakthrough is based on their new scientific understanding and innovative design of highly active dual-type quantum dots (QDs) that are constructed within the interlayers of ultrathin layered double hydroxides for large energy storage systems. The expandable interlayer provides a suitable confined space for the growth and uniform dispersion of QDs, which has successfully resolved the existing challenges and difficulties in obtaining different types of and uniformly dispersed highly active QDs in a stable conductive microenvironment. With the newly developed highly active dual-type QDs, the hybrid supercapacitors have a high energy density of 329.2 μWh cm−2, capacitance retention of 99.1% and Coulomb efficiency of 96.9% after 22,000 cycles, which is superior to other reported works. This work is published in Advanced Materials, a top-tier journal in materials science with an impact factor of 29.4. The first two authors are Dr Yang Qingjun and Miss Chung King-yan, Clarie (BA, 2019), a postdoctoral fellow and a PhD student under the supervision of Professor Xu.

Emerging Hong Kong fashion talents take centre stage at PolyU Fashion Show 2024 injecting renewed vigour into the fashion industry

Hong Kong's fashion world is bursting with creativity and vitality! The much-awaited annual PolyU Fashion Show 2024, was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on 5 June 2024. Organised by SFT, the Show featured 40 exceptionally talented students who captivated the audience and impressed the judges and industry professionals with a spectacular runway show. The distinctive styles, imaginative designs and modern fashion concepts of the young students look set to add powerful new momentum to the local fashion scene. This year, the Show attracted an impressive audience of nearly 1,500 in-person guests, while an extensive online audience of over 46,000 viewers from across the globe watched on YouTube, Wechat, and Weibo live streams. These numbers highlight the growing influence of the School and further emphasise its position as a pioneer in fashion education. The Show unveiled 30 remarkable new collections by fresh graduates (Class of 2024) specialising in fashion design, knitwear design, intimate apparel and activewear design from the BA (Hons) Scheme in Fashion and Textiles - the flagship SFT programme. In addition, a cohort of the outstanding graduating students from the MA in Fashion and Textile Design, further impressed the guests with 10 cutting-edge collections. SFT is recognised worldwide as a leading fashion and textiles education institution, committed to establishing a thriving creative community that cultivates students with a global perspective and encourages innovative ways of thinking, that empower young talent to flourish as outstanding designers and visionary leaders in the contemporary fashion industry. Thanks to generous support from numerous industry partners and sponsors, the Show connected the students with many influential figures from across the fashion and technology sectors, facilitated their understanding of current industry trends and helped propel them further along their career path.  Seven awards and scholarships were presented at the Show in recognition of students’ outstanding work and to encourage the talented students to pursue their dreams in fashion while embracing their academic journey at SFT. The judging panel for the Consinee Grand Award, sponsored by the event's Diamond Sponsor, Consinee Group, comprised leading fashion industry professionals including Ms Florence Tsui, Consinee Group's Marketing and Business Development Manager. In addition, four outstanding SFT alumni who served as fashion practitioners in their respective fields also joined the panel in selecting the winner. They were Ms Chan Brun (BA, 2013), founder of röyksopp gakkai, a local brand that crafts enchanting collections inspired by mushroom-infused narratives and the transformative journey of youth; Mr Derek Chan (MPhil, 2017), Design Director of DEMO, a fashion label that reimagines traditional masculinity in contemporary and gender-neutral designs; Mr Tak Lee (BA, 2014), founder of Tak L., whose design philosophy celebrates the beauty of impermanence and natural evolution; and Ms Katherine Ho (BA, 2016), Editor-in-Chief of L'OFFICIEL HONG KONG, a renowned fashion magazine from France. The HKIAIA Overall Grand Award, sponsored by the Hong Kong Intimate Apparel Industries’ Association (HKIAIA), which was the event’s Diamond Sponsor, was another highlight of the night. Ms Karen Ng, Secretary of HKIAIA, was invited to be the judge for this prestigious award. Other members of the judging panel for the other various awards and scholarships were (in alphabetical order): • Ms Janet Cheung, Vice Chairman and Project Director, Hong Kong Fashion Designers Association • Mr Stafford Lau, Founding Chairman of SFAA Foundation Limited; Director of Stella Blu Textile Limited • Ms Sherin Tang, Senior Manager - Admin and Operations, The Mills Fabrica • Ms Brenda Yang, Technical Manager, Flinders Merino Group and The Woolmark Company • Ms Dilys Yiu, Design Director, Fenix Group Holdings Limited The winner of the Consinee Grand Award was Lai Chu-yi with her outstanding work themed “Let it rot”. The collection showcases a "let it rot" lifestyle, utilising textiles, volume, and silhouettes. It captures the pressure young people face under social labels, emphasising fabric weight and recreating relaxed bed-like features for space and comfort. The HKIAIA Overall Grand Award winner was Poon Hei-man Peggy. Her exceptional collection created under the theme “Toxic Breath” embodies love as a beautiful yet painful experience, symbolising its suffocating nature and its ability to strip away freedom. Red and black dominate the collection, with red lycoris representing the sorrow within this intense love. For more photos and the playback of the Show, please visit our official social media accounts Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube!   “Emancipation” by Pang Wing-yan, Joyce, winner of the Fenix Young Talent Award “Virtual Utopia” by Lo Chi-ho Steven, winner of the Go Green Award “Let it rot” by Lai Chu-yi, winner of The The Mills Fabrica Future - Maker Award “Magic Mushroom Dreamland” by Cheung Wai-yee, winner of the Best Use of Australian Merino Wool Award “I am rooted, but I flow” by Hui Hei-yan, winner of the HKFDA Scholarship of Creativity 2024  

PolyU and Beijing Union University sign MoU

We are delighted to announce a new partnership with the Beijing Union University (BUU). This collaboration aims to establish academic exchange opportunities to both institutions'  research postgraduate and undergraduate students. Today, Professor Erin Cho, Dean of SFT, and Professor Zhang Qi, Dean of College of Art at BUU, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU marks a pivotal moment in fostering a strategic cooperation and collaboration between SFT and the College of Art at BUU.

New appointments

SFT is pleased to welcome the following academic staff members who took up the full-time positions in the past 6 months: Assistant Professor Dr Yadie Yang Research Assistant Professor Dr Cheung Tin-wai Dr Minjung Cho Dr David Lyu Dr Esfandiar Pakdel Dr Alice Yao Dr Zhou Yanghong

Prof. Xu Bingang’s team develops biocompatible materials for new e-textiles

Realising flexible electronics with wear comfort and durability that are comparable to traditional textiles is one of the ultimate pursuits of smart wearables. The fabrication of e-textiles is ideally to print conductive ink onto fabric, which is a simple and inexpensive process. However, fabricating high-performance atop textiles with good dispersity, stability, biocompatibility, and wearability for high-resolution, large-scale manufactured, and practical applications has remained challenging. Recently, Prof. Xu Bingang and his team made an innovative breakthrough in the field with the development of water-based multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) -decorated liquid metal (LM) inks with a carbonaceous micro-nanostructure of gallium–indium for new e-textiles. With the use of biopolymers, the sodium alginate-encapsulated LM droplets contain high carboxyl groups which non-covalently crosslink with silk sericin-mediated MWCNTs. The new e-textiles can be subsequently prepared via a printing technique for a naturally waterproof triboelectric coating, which facilitates good flexibility, hydrophilicity, breathability, wearability, biocompatibility, conductivity, stability, and excellent versatility, without the need for any artificial chemicals. The obtained e-textiles can be used in various applications with designable patterns and circuits. Multi-sensing applications that recognise complex human movements, breathing, phonation, and pressure distribution are found with repeatable and reliable signals. Self-powered and energy-harvesting capabilities are also presented by driving electronic devices and lighting LEDs. As proof of concept, this work provides new opportunities in a scalable and sustainable way to develop novel wearable electronic textiles and smart clothing for future commercial applications. The work is published in Nano-Micro Letters which has an impact factor of 26.6. The first author is Miss Chung King-yan, Clarie (BA, 2019), a local first-class honour graduate from our BA programme. She is currently pursuing her PhD study under the supervision of Prof. Xu Bingang.