During the 2026 World Design Cities Conference (WDCC 2026), Donghua University (DHU) and Swarovski held an event on the DHU campus to mark 20 years of cooperation. Vice President Yan Linping and Peter Widmann, Swarovski's Global Executive Vice President for B2B, attended, together with heads of relevant DHU offices and the College of Fashion and Design, faculty and student representatives, corporate guests and alumni.
In his remarks, Vice President Yan Linping reviewed two decades of cooperation. The two partners have worked on international collaborative education, bringing cutting-edge industry resources into the classroom to strengthen students' professional grounding and global design perspective. He described the 20th anniversary as an important milestone in the partnership and said he hoped it would serve as an opportunity to broaden cooperation and deepen practical collaboration.
Sun Jie, Dean of the College of Fashion and Design, and Peter Widmann exchanged commemorative items marking the 20-year partnership.
The DHU–Swarovski Creative Design Center was officially upgraded to the DHU–Swarovski Greater China Fashion Design Center, which will provide a higher-level platform for creative practice and industry co-creation.
A Swarovski lecture on autumn/winter 2027/2028 trends introduced the latest international fashion directions. Students and faculty examined samples up close and explored cross-sector applications of crystal elements in a range of products.
An exhibition marking the 20th anniversary, 'Crystal Infinity', opened at the same time, bringing together outstanding creative work by students over the years and selected pieces from Swarovski's archives in Austria. The exhibition runs until 17 October, DHU's 75th anniversary.
DHU and Swarovski will continue to deepen international integration of industry and education, linking fashion design teaching with the global fashion industry and developing more fashion design professionals with international perspectives and innovative capability.
