Textile design in HK today encompasses everything from memorializing heritage to community building and sustainable lifestyle practices. Chitralekha Basu reports.

He's probably the most-photographed butcher in Heung Che Street Market in Tsuen Wan although he refuses to show his face in the photos. He also doesn't take interviews and insists that photographers frame him neck downward. The young man in question is a bit tired of modeling an item of his workaday gear - an apron cut out of "self-cleaning fabric" developed by the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparels (HKRITA) - although he had a role in its making.

Heung Che Street wet market is a long way away from HKRITA's lab where the technology for creating yarns that respond fast and effectively to chemical treatment was developed. Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT) acted as the bridge in between. CHAT, earlier known as MILL6, aims to link up Hong Kong's textile heritage with people's lives in the present. They run several community outreach programs in Fuk Loi Estate, across the street from the market, and were keen to see the butchers, fishmongers, seafood and tofu-sellers - those most likely to get their work clothes stained during the chopping and dicing - benefit as a result of their intervention.

CHAT's designer Hung Ming-kin put together a range of custom-made aprons, factoring in specific demands from the butchers.