From 11th to 13th February 2025, the “The Partners’ Meeting on integration of Intangible Cultural Heritage into Contemporary Fashion Design” co-hosted by the UNESCO East Asia Office and the Chuxiong Prefectural Government of Yunnan was held in Chuxiong. The SFD, as one of the representatives of Chinese universities, explored the pathways for the contemporary transformation of traditional culture with inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, fashion designers, and scholars from countries including China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia, demonstrating the pioneering practices of universities in the filed of innovative intangible cultural heritage.

Liang Xu, Director of Cooperation and Development at SFD, was invited to deliver a keynote speech at the conference. He systematically explained the role of the “PBL Project-Based Learning” teaching model in promoting the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. “Design is not only an expression of art but also a bridge for cultural heritage”. Liang Xu stated, citing projects such as the Forbidden City colour system study and the tea space design at the Dubai Expo, discussing feasible paths for traditional cultural elements to gain international recognition through modern design. He emphasized, “we hope to make intangible heritage a ‘Chinese card’ of global fashion through educational practice”.

Liu An, a teacher at SFD and a researcher in sustainable fashion, shared the integration pathways of traditional cultural and modern design from multiple perspectives of teaching, scientific research, and design practice in her keynote speech – The future Practice of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Fashion. Through design teaching cases such as “Cursive Script Deconstruction”, “Dunhuang Mural Regeneration”, and “Folk Festival Inspiration Transformation”, she demonstrated how to combine traditional intangible heritage elements, cutting-edge biodegradable materials, and contemporary design methods to explore the contemporary translation of traditional symbols. Liu An noted that through interdisciplinary practice, industry-academia-research cooperation, and public participation in therapeutic intangible heritage workshops, it is possible to expand the influence of intangible heritage, build and innovative sustainable paradigm that combines cultural heritage value with market competitiveness, protecting cultural roots while constructing an environmentally friendly industrial future.

The conference is the first UNESCO intangible heritage integration into fashion project meeting in the East Asia region. The conference aimed to enrich the diversity of global fashion and intangible cultural heritage by integrating intangible heritage skills into contemporary fashion through workshops and training, collaborative fashion projects, exhibitions, and media promotion, attracting the younger generation to revitalize traditional crafts, enhancing the capacity for heritage and innovation of intangible cultural heritage, and promoting the development of heritage transmission and the local economy. SFD will actively draw on the outcomes of the conference, deepen school-local cooperation mechanisms, and promote the “academic research-community practice-international dissemination” trinity model, helping Chinese design shine on the global stage.