Show and tell

Have the events of this year impacted your designs in any specific way?

The events of this year have seriously impacted production and execution. Firstly, for fabrication, there were limited choices for yarn and fabric. Since most of the factories stopped working due to COVID-19, some of the yarn was out of stock or wasn't ready for sale. So the selection was narrow for the best texture, color and handling, which affected the outcome of the design. Moreover, I had to increase the proportion of woven fabric in my collection to replace some of the knitted items. But for woven fabric, some of my desired fabrics weren't able to ship to Hong Kong. Originally, I was going to order from overseas; however, the airlines stopped and the shipping had to be delayed, which forced me to use whatever was readily available in Hong Kong.

Secondly, as far as timing issues, these events affected the duration of production and shipping. Most factories had to shut down for a few months and they piled up with orders. The factory not only had to produce my knitwear items, but their own orders as well, so they couldn't meet the planned schedule. Moreover, the shipping was delayed and prolonged, which limited the time for retouching and processing before the submission. Given these situations, some students weren't able to submit their projects on time and lost the opportunity to join the contest.

Thirdly, for execution, the format to showcase our final-year project has been highly affected by the events. In the tradition of the PolyU graduation show, we're usually able to showcase six outfits for each collection – but we could only produce three outfits for each student, given the situation in Hong Kong. The format of the show has changed frequently, with a lot of uncertainty and things out of our control that left us not knowing what to do. Luckily, the school has been trying its best to conduct the graduation show to showcase our work.