News

Online prejudging of PolyU Fashion Show 2020

 Every year, ITC organizes a graduate fashion show to showcase the talent and creativity of our graduating class of design students and provide them with a rewarding and fulfilling experience. This year, 61 students presented their collection to a pre-judging panel. In the spirit of adaptation during the COVID-19 pandemic, ITC offered prejudging of the collections through an online voting platform, instead of an in-person exhibition, so that the judges could select the finalists for the fashion show in a safe and healthy environment. The Institute of Textiles and Clothing Students' Society (ITCSS) members generously provided their time to upload the design boards, videos and styling photos of the student collections onto the online platform which allowed the judges to review, comment, and cast their votes based on the selection criteria of degree of creativity, level of design skills, ability to problem solve, balancing commercial appeal with artistry, and level of professional competency. A total of 11 internal design staff and 14 external designers/industry leaders made up the judging panel. They completed the online prejudging task between 14-16 June 2020. The judges had only positive comments about the work of the graduating students and the user-friendliness of the online voting system. The following 17 finalists have been selected to showcase their work on the runway of the PolyU Fashion Show 2020. Name* Title of Collection Category CHAN Ho Lam The Seeker Journey Knitwear CHAN Lok Yin Spirited Ritual Womenswear CHU Chun Yee The Fire of Creation Knitwear LAI Hoi Lee Mileage Womenswear LAM Ching Hei, Charmaine One of a Kind Knitwear LAM Ka Man Sire Womenswear LEUNG Hoi Ting Extreme Storage Knitwear LI Ka Kei Party In The City Womenswear LIU Hoi Tung Falling Slowly Womenswear LUK Jo " p o r t r a i t " Menswear LUK Tsz Ting To Infinity and Beyond Menswear/Unisex MAK Cheuk Hei Chinese Maximalism - Left Behind Children Womenswear NG Wing Yan RATHER BE Womenswear SIAU Tsz Leong, Jimmy I, HUMANIMAL' Knitwear TAI Wai Tung Omni-things Menswear/Unisex TSE Yun Ting Alex DEVOID Womenswear YU Cheuk Lam, Topsy MORNING MOON Womenswear * In alphabetical order of last name   Special thanks to the judges and sponsors of the PolyU Fashion Show 2020. Gold Sponsors: Esquel Group Fenix Group Holdings Limited GU Hong Kong Apparel Limited Silver Sponsors: KERSON TEXTILES LIMITED Tove & Libra Hong Kong Fashion Designers Association The Mills Fabrica

Quick response research to COVID-19 – Development of face mask

The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak which started in January 2020 and ultimately designated a pandemic status has led to an unprecedented global demand for disposable face masks.  The demand is based on the belief that wearing a face mask can protect the wearer from infection of the coronavirus, which has resulted in a chronic shortage of supply in markets worldwide, but especially in Hong Kong.  In order to provide an alternative to disposable face masks, an ad-hoc project on developing an effective antiviral, washable and reusable face mask is led by ITC with the following team members: Chi-wai KAN, Professor of ITC, Faculty of Applied Science and Textiles (FAST) Joanne YIP, Associate Professor of ITC, FAST Chris LO, Associate Professor of ITC, FAST Joseph Ka-fu YUNG, Associate Professor of Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology (ABCT), FAST Amber Jia-chi CHIOU, Assistant Professor of ABCT, FAST Hai GUO, Professor of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), Faculty of Construction and Environment Simon Ching LAM, School of Nursing (SN), Faculty of Health and Social Sciences   1. Development of Face Mask The project team proposed the fabrication of a 3-layer face mask with good filtration efficiency and antimicrobial capability, which they called PU30TM. The outer layer is cotton fabric with good antimicrobial capability and water repellency. The middle layer is non-woven fabric with good filtration efficiency. The inside layer is cotton fabric with good softness and water absorption ability.  The ITC team (Prof. KAN, Dr. YIP and Dr. LO) used different textiles to develop PU30TM. They examined the use of an antimicrobial coating technology to construct the outer layer of the face mask, which would impart an antimicrobial effect.  The ABCT team (Dr. YUNG and Dr. CHIOU) evaluated the antimicrobial effect of PU30TM and examined its durability.  The CEE and SN team (Prof. GUO and Dr. LAM) evaluated the filtration efficiency of the non-woven fabric to determine the best material for the middle layer that would meet international standards.  The properties and efficiencies of the face mask materials are listed in Table 1.      Table 1. Face mask properties Property Result Bacterial Filtration Efficiency (BFE%; ASTM F2100 9.1/ASTM F2101) >95% Particulate Filtration Efficiency (PFE% ; ASTM F2100 9.3/ASTM F2299) >95% Viral Filtration Efficiency (VFE%; ASTM F2101)  >95% Resistance to Penetration by Synthetic Blood (ASTM F2100 9.4/ASTM F1862) No penetration Flammability (ASTM F2100 9.5/16 CFR PART 1610) Class 1 Antibacterial effect (AATCC 100) -Staphylococcus aureus >99.9% inhibition Antibacterial effect (AATCC 100) -Klebsiella pneumoniae >99.9% inhibition Water repellency (AATCC 22) Completely dry Notes: The antiviral properties of the outer layer of fabric to H1N1 and COVID-19 are tested in a local university with an in-house testing method. Inhibition of virus growth: >90%. 2. Know-how Generated – PU30TM The research work on developing PU30TM has resulted in five patents filed in the US, China and Hong Kong to protect this intellectual property.  A trademark for the name of the mask, PU30TM, has also been filed in China and Hong Kong. An image of the mask is shown in Photo 1. 3. Social Impacts After the development of PU30TM in February 2020, a production process was implemented in March and April 2020 in Hong Kong to produce a certain number of face masks which would be distributed to the needy.  The pilot activities were conducted from March to June 2020 as follows. Social Service Centres under the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council Limited recruited sewing workers who were unemployed due to COVID-19. They produced more than 2900 children’s face masks. ITC provided Work-Integrated-Education (WIE) opportunities to more than 33 undergraduate students in various fashion disciplines (i.e., technology, intimate apparel and activewear, fashion design, etc.) who applied their knowledge and skills to make, package and distribute PU30TM (see Photo 2). The tasks also allowed the students to apply their knowledge and skills to a real world context. In May 2020, a batch of PU30TM was distributed to the FAST staff and PolyU community for a trial wear. In June 2020, more than 20,000 PU30TM for adults and children were donated to the needy and distributed through the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council Limited (Photo 3).  In the spirit of caring and love, about 1000 PU30TM were specifically donated to the students and staff of the Sheng Kung Hui Holy Spirit Primary School on 19 June 2020. 4. Research Impact - from Face Mask to Other Personal Protective Equipment Research Work The ad-hoc research process which was carried out to address the COVID-19 outbreak allowed the team members to acquire new knowledge not only in face masks but also in personal protective equipment.  The ITC team members further obtained funding support from the Public Sector Trial Scheme for the Prevention and Control of COVID-19 in Hong Kong (PSTS-COVID-19) administered by the Innovation and Technology Fund, HKSAR Government as Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-investigator (Co-I) for various studies and in different areas to advance personal protective equipment in a variety of application areas. The details of the funded projects are as follows. Developing Antiviral and Durable Clothing for Healthcare Workers in Elderly Homes by Prof. Chi-wai KAN as PI - 1000 antiviral and durable garments will be provided to healthcare workers in elderly homes Developing Healthcare Clothing with Antiviral and Antibacterial Capabilities by Prof. Chi-wai KAN as PI - 2000 healthcare worker garments with antiviral and antibacterial capabilities will be provided to healthcare workers who are working in hospitals under the Hospital Authority PU30TM – Antiviral, Washable and Reusable Face Mask by Dr. Joanne Yiu-wan YIP as PI - 40,000 antiviral, washable and reusable face masks will be provided to the needy through the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council Limited 3D Printed Antivirus Materials and Application in Public Facilities by Dr Chris LO as PI - Provides 3D printed handles with long lasting antimicrobial capability that will be installed on used-clothing recycling boxes around Hong Kong, and anticipated to be used by at least 20,000 individuals each month. This is a collaborative effort with the Home Affairs Department and Friends of the Earth (HK) and  provides customized 3D printed covers for exhibitions / handles / lift buttons with long lasting antimicrobial capability at the Hong Kong Wetland Park, where over 90,000 local and international visitors will be protected. In addition, the project team has participated in the 國家重點研發計劃項目 administered by 中華人民共和國科學技術部 Project title: 輸入性疫情防控方案及裝備研製 - 安全防護用具(抗病毒口罩，防護服) 研究重點:側重研究抗病毒塗層技術應用於防護用具,從而使其具有抗病毒效果,同時不影響其透氣性及其他表面性狀。 Project team awards FAST Faculty Award 2019/2020 – Team Award in Research and Scholarly Activities

REFORMING FASHION – Online Student Fashion Show

ITC is launching our very first online student fashion show on the ITC Facebook Fan Page, Instagram and Linkedin to curate the amazing works of our graduating students online . The fashion show features three categories: “Intimate Design”, “Fashion Design” and “Knitwear Design”. We will first show the design works of the 12 finalists of the PolyU Intimate Fashion Show 2020 who are majoring in Intimate Apparel and Activewear from 27 June to 8 July. This will be followed by the design works of the 17 finalists of the PolyU Fashion Show 2020. Last but not least, the works of students in the Knitwear Design and Technology specialism will be showcased.

Distributing PU30 reusable face masks to protect community

Hundreds of local schools in Hong Kong reopened on 27 May 2020 after months of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To help students protect themselves against the spread of this coronavirus, Prof Kan Chi-wai, Professor of ITC, and Dr Joanne Yip, Associate Professor of ITC, visited Sheng Kung Hui Holy Spirit Primary School on 19 June 2020 to donate nearly a thousand PU30TM face masks. Developed by a research team led by Prof. Kan and Dr Yip, PU30TM is an antiviral, washable and reusable mask. The mask has been in-vitro shown to inhibit tested strains of influenza virus (H1N1) and the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) upon contact with the surface of the face mask. However, correlation between the in-vitro testing results and any clinical event has yet to be established. Related news: Quick response research to COVID-19 – Development of face mask

Prof. Xiaoming Tao leads Research Team to Produce Novel Green Anti-pathogenic Agent and Textiles

A multidisciplinary team led by Prof. Xiaoming Tao, Chair Professor of ITC, has made the novel discovery of the application of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) oligomer as an outstanding wide-spectrum anti-pathogenic agent against viruses, fungi, disease causing agents like mice, bacteria and drug-resistant bacteria. The PHB oligomer synthesized in the ITC laboratory demonstrates excellent efficacy against influenza viruses H1N1 and H3N2. Its inactivation rate exceeds 99.99% or in other words, the inactivation index is 4.24 and 4.40 for H1N1 and H3N2, respectively. An anti-pathogenic agent is found in a fiber-forming biopolymer, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV), that is produced through the fermentation of starch or sugar. Thus the use of PHBV/ poly(lactic acid) (PLA) fibers in a range of textile manufacturing processes including fiber spinning, filament yarn texturing, yarn spinning, weaving, knitting, coloring and nonwoven processing, has been extensively studied by the team. As a result, high-quality fibers have been commercially produced and used to fabricate a wide range of commercial anti-pathogenic products, including face-masks, undergarments, gowns, socks as well as beddings by a number of industrial companies in Hong Kong and Mainland China. The resultant textiles maintain their anti-pathogenic properties after 50 machine wash cycles. Compared to most anti-pathogenic agents and anti-bacteria textiles currently found in the market, the new agent and textiles not only are highly effective, but also have other outstanding properties, such as non-toxicity and anti-allergic properties. Yet another advantage is their environmental friendliness. Unlike other types of organic or inorganic agents, they are fully degradable into carbon dioxide and water, without any harmful residual matter left for the landfill. PolyU, ITF/HKRITA, eight industrial companies and two NGOs have supported five consecutive research projects during the last 6 years. In the ongoing projects, the anti-pathogenic agent and textile products are being investigated for the prevention and reduction of viral and microbial infections in nursing homes, hospitals as well as other public venues. Ma LL, Zhang ZH, Li J, Yang XX, Fei B, Leung P, Tao XM*, 2019. A new antimicrobial agent: poly (3-hydroxybutyric acid) oligomer, Macromolecular Bioscience, 19(5), 1970014. Zhang ZH, Li J, Ma LL, Liu SR, Leung P, Tao XM*, Green wide-spectrum anti-pathogenic agents and its personal protective devices, Infectious Diseases Virtual 2020, June 14, 2020. (Invited paper)

Dr Patrick Hui and Prof. Chi-wai Kan publish in Carbohydrate Polymers

Dr Patrick Hui, Associate Professor of ITC and Prof Kan Chi-wai, Professor of ITC, recently coauthored a paper published in Carbohydrate Polymers (Top 5% journal in the categories of Polymer Science, Chemistry (Organic) and Chemistry (Applied) according to Journal Citation Reports 2019 (JCR 2019), Web of Science), which is a top-tier Elsevier journal with an impact factor of 7.182.  Their paper, "Drug delivery system of dual-responsive PF-127 hydrogel with polysaccharide-based nano-conjugate for textile-based transdermal therapy", discusses the development of a Pluronic F-127 based dual-responsive (pH/temperature) hydrogel drug delivery system that involves a polysaccharide-based nano-conjugate of hyaluronic acid and chitosan oligosaccharide lactate. The system is applied to load a traditional Chinese medicine called Cortex Moutan to treat eczema. The study immensely contributes to the literature on drug delivery with the use of herbal medicine. S. Chatterjee, P.C.L. Hui*, E. Wat, C.W. Kan, P.C. Leung, and Wenyi Wang, “Drug delivery system of dual-responsive PF-127 hydrogel with polysaccharide-based nano-conjugate for textile-based transdermal therapy”, Carbohydrate Polymers, 2020, 236, 116074; DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116074

「國家教育部2020年度高等學校科學研究優秀成果獎(科學技術)」提名公示

Prof. Jason Choi publishes in Production and Operations Management journal

ITC congratulates Prof. Jason Choi for the recent publication of his paper in Production and Operations Management, a premier business journal that is listed in all major business school journal lists (for example, The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) journal list, Financial Times Top 50 Journals list, Business Week list, etc.). The paper is based on research on supply chain management with risk considerations, which is an important research area that is especially relevant to supply chains that produce and sell short-life fashion products. In the literature, the classical newsvendor model is often used to explore inventory management problems in supply chains that sell short-life fashionable and seasonal products. The standard newsvendor problem seeks to minimize the expected inventory cost or maximize the expected profit. However, optimizing an expected value alone does not fully capture the stochastic nature of the newsvendor problem. Inspired by the Nobel prize winning mean-variance theory in economic sciences and the higher-moment analyses explored in the finance literature, Professor Choi and his co-authors theoretically conduct a mean-variance-skewness-kurtosis (MVSK) analysis for the newsvendor problem. They first derive the analytical expressions for the mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis of profit in a standard newsvendor setting and reveal their structural properties. They then establish various MVSK optimization problems and find the solution to each of them. They show that kurtosis aversion always causes the newsvendor to order less, while skewness seeking can cause the newsvendor to order either more or less depending on the specific structure of the profit’s skewness, which is affected by the symmetric and asymmetric properties of the demand distribution. Finally, they address the challenges of supply chain coordination based on the Pareto optimality concept. They reveal that considering the MVSK preferences of supply chain agents will significantly affect the achievability of supply chain coordination and flexibility of the coordinating contract. Zhang, J., S.P. Sethi, T.M. Choi*, T.C.E. Cheng. 2020. Supply Chains Involving a Mean-Variance-Skewness-Kurtosis Newsvendor: Analysis and Coordination. Production and Operations Management 29(6), 1397-1430. https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.13159

New ITC tagline – Pioneering Fashion and Textile Education and Research

ITC is introducing a new tagline in our efforts to enhance the awareness and understanding of PolyU staff, students, alumni, and industrial and education partners on the essence of our brand and uniqueness - Pioneering Fashion and Textile Education and Research 創意時尚 編織未來. We are proud of our history and achievements at ITC. The new  tagline perfectly conveys a powerful message to the community which will increase rapport with our friends and earn their support in achieving our vision and missions.

Dr Chloe Ki publishes top downloaded paper

ITC is pleased to announce that a paper written by Dr Chloe Ki and published in Psychology and Marketing has been recognized by Wiley-Blackwell as the one of the top most downloaded papers among work published between January 2018 and December 2019.  According to the March 2018 issue of the Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Quality Guide, Psychology and Marketing is one of the most highly regarded journals in the field. In recognition of Dr. Ki’s research entitled “The mechanism by which social media influencers persuade consumers: The role of consumers’ desire to mimic”, she received a certificate of achievement from Wiley-Blackwell which was also given to recognize that her research has had immediate impacts and helped to increase the visibility of Psychology and Marketing. In this study, Dr. Ki and Dr. Kim investigated the mechanism through which social media influencers (SMIs) persuade consumers to adopt certain brands. Their research provided empirical evidence after analyzing the responses of 395 U.S. consumers on how the process of influence by SMIs occurs in four principal stages: (1) the attempts of SMIs to influence (showcasing H1: attractive; H2: prestigious; H3 and H4: expert; H5: informative; and H6: interactive Instagram contents); (2) the attitudinal response of the target consumers to the influence exercised (evaluating the SMI as a H7: taste and H8: opinion leader); which, in turn, affects (3) the desire of the targets to comply (the desire to mimic); and ultimately (4) their favorable behavioral outcomes (H9: social media word‐of‐mouth and H10: purchase intentions). The empirical findings provide important insights for the current SMI literature as follows. First, the research work has identified the principal traits — i.e., specific qualities of the social media contents of SMIs (e.g., attractiveness, prestige, expertise, information and interaction)—that enable SMIs to appeal to peer consumers and amass followers. Second, the research indicates that it is both the taste and opinion leadership of SMIs that serve as equally important criteria in the evaluations of consumers of them. Third, the research provides initial insight for the literature by indicating that the desire of consumers to mimic SMIs plays a critical mediating role in translating the positive attitudes of consumers (i.e., viewing SMIs as taste and opinion leaders) into favorable behavioral outcomes (i.e., sharing the posts of SMIs or purchasing the same products, services or brands endorsed by the SMIs).