Hong Kong

The Spring Edition of Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics, one of the leading destinations for sourcing fabrics and accessories, gets under way today. As visitors start to throng the three-day event, Wendy Wen, Managing Director of fair organiser Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd, talks about Shanghai and what to expect from the event.

A group of researchers has crafted an AI-enabled jacket with an electronic textile that warms the user without overheating and provides immediate temperature readings for easy monitoring.

LiteHide is an innovative process that effectively eliminates the scourge of tanneries: the use of salt, which is a huge global land and waterway pollutant. Alexandra Pelka, Head of Europe and Business Development of Leatherteq Limited—the innovator of the technology—talks at length about leather, processes and technology.

The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel Limited (HKRITA) has developed a mechanical recycling method for denim fabrics that addresses the challenge of minimising fibre damage using existing mechanical recycling technologies.

Open Lab, a 20,000 sq ft facility, launched by the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) and the H&M Foundation, is set to become a global hub for sustainable innovation, focusing on climate action and industry-wide collaboration to showcase solutions and ongoing research to enable industry to quickly adjust, iterate, pilot and scale faster.

Inspired by the adaptive thermal regulation mechanism in pigeons, a team of researchers in Hong Kong has developed the first-of-its-kind intelligent soft robotic clothing for automatic temperature adaptation and thermal insulation in hot environments, offering superior personal protection and thermal comfort across a range of temperatures.

A Hong Kong researcher shows how textile waste can be reused as thermal insulation for sustainable buildings as an effective green technology that synergistically combines two crucial components in achieving carbon neutrality: textile waste recycling and building energy saving.

The Redress Design Award 2024 is calling on emerging designers globally to apply with their circular and sustainable fashion collections before the closing date of 15 March 2024. It is estimated that 80% of a product’s environmental impact is determined at the design stage.

Fashion industry urgently needs to reposition profit margins for strategic integration of sustainability and circularity into product design and bridge the knowledge gap and financial barriers for circular design to implement circularity at the design stage at enterprises manufacturing in China and Southeast Asia.

The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) has developed a separation system to capture microplastic fibres in water by using acoustic manipulation techniques. In addition to treating wastewater generated from the textiles and apparel industries, the Acousweep can be applied to other industry sectors for microplastic collection.