Hong Kong Polytechnic University has opened a store to showcase garments by its fashion students.

The store, which was soft-launched in July, represents an opportunity for students to learn real retail scenarios and practice running an omnichannel store, delivering critical business skills. The shop retails clothing by more than 1000 enrolled designers and alumni, currently carrying around 30 brands.

Hong Kong Polytechnic’s associate professor of fashion retail and marketing Christina Wong said customers around the world can buy the product through the online platform.

“We hope that will take the local designers and Poly graduates work to the international market.

“They will be involved in the marketing and social media and the formulation of the marketing strategy itself.

We’re planning to have a competition to get students to form teams and run their own marketing strategies and test them out to see what’s working and what’s not.”

Among the university’s graduates is celebrity designer Vivienne Tam.