Dressing as a medium, resonating with the times. On May 31, the 2026 graduation fashion show of the School of Textiles and Fashion kicked off at the SUES-DIIS(Design Innovation Institute Shanghai) Joint Innovation Center. Themed Fashion in Harmony with the Times, the show featured over 80 outstanding graduation works from the Fashion and Apparel Design program. Lou Yongqi, President of SUES, along with representatives from industry-academia cooperation enterprises, leaders from internal and external affiliated colleges and functional departments, and off-campus adjunct mentors, were present to witness this fashion feast that blends creativity with craftsmanship.
The theme Fashion in Harmony with the Times draws from the phrase walking with the era, dressing in beauty, integrating humanistic philosophy, fashion trends, and social development into every stitch. Times represents the tide of the era — the passage of years, technological iteration, cultural rebirth, and sustainable development. Fashion stands for garments, for expression, for bearing — the gentlest response to the world. The 80 works, using clothing as a medium, resonated with the times: designers employed diverse design approaches, weaving the innovative wisdom of artificial intelligence and human-machine collaboration into textiles, revitalizing traditional crafts through modern technology, while embracing sustainability — balancing ecology and aesthetics in fabric selection, structural tailoring, and color coordination, revealing elegance in simplicity and responsibility in heritage.
As a comprehensive showcase of the school's teaching achievements, this fashion show was not only a visual spectacle but also a practice of industry-academia-research collaborative innovation. The performance team was jointly created by students from the Fashion Design and Performance program, incorporating Harmonious Resonance, an intelligent musical instrument installation designed and crafted by Chen Jun kai, Associate Professor and artist at SUES, as well as the latest research achievements of the Tongji University robotic arm team. From creative planning to stage presentation, the entire process embodied innovative thinking in cross-disciplinary and cross-departmental collaboration.
The SUES-DIIS Joint Innovation Center is located at the historic site of the Nelson Institute of Technology. The century-old brick walls in the graduation show engaged in a dialogue across time and space with modern design works, echoing the theme Fashion in Harmony with the Times and highlighting the school's educational philosophy of being rooted in Shanghai while inheriting and innovating. This fashion feast, blending historical heritage with youthful vitality, was not only the culminating work of the graduates' university journey but also a new starting point as they stepped into the fashion industry. It was reported that the graduation show was concurrently featured in China College Student Fashion Week and released online through the CCTV Video platform, allowing industry experts, enterprise representatives, and audiences nationwide to jointly witness the growing power of the new generation of designers.
Source:https://cfd.sues.edu.cn/89/56/c11394a297302/page.htm
