ConnectAR Limited on Thursday launched AI Fashion Designer 2.0 (formerly AR Fashion Designer), a major update to its award-winning augmented reality (AR) design app.
Earlier versions asked users to work on predefined drawing sheets. Version 2.0 uses AI to let them draw freely, whether that is a princess gown with a cape, a modern take on the qipao, or an idea entirely their own, and then see the result as a 3D garment in AR.
The core experience stays the same: users draw and colour on paper, scan their work with a phone or tablet, and the app turns it into a 3D outfit they can explore from every angle. What changes in 2.0 is the starting point, according to a statement.
The app’s Generative AI function recognises the shapes and details in freehand drawings, and converts them into a 3D model, so an idea no longer has to fit a prepared outline. The app’s new name reflects that shift.
The launch builds on ConnectAR’s work in Hong Kong schools. In 2024, ConnectAR and the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong (THEi) co-organised the first Hong Kong Digital Qipao and Chinese National Costumes Design Competition, supported by The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited and more than 30 fashion, education and technology organisations.
The competition set out to let students be creative while deepening their understanding of traditional Chinese dress as intangible cultural heritage.
More than 400 students from 77 schools and institutions took part: primary and secondary students used AR to design national costumes without fabric or sewing, while tertiary students made physical qipao. Their work was presented at an awards ceremony and fashion show at THEi in July 2024, covered by Sing Tao, Ming Pao, Oriental Daily and the Hong Kong Economic Times.
“From day one, our belief has been simple: everyone can be a fashion designer,” said Leo Lau, Co- founder and CEO of ConnectAR.
“Our qipao and Chinese national costume templates have been very popular with teachers and students because student learn by doing. As they colour in a mandarin collar or the patterns on a national costume, they pick up real knowledge of Chinese culture and history, such as where each design comes from and what its details mean, and they have fun doing it. Version 2.0 takes the next step. Once students understand a design principle, they can draw their own perspectives on it.”
Lau added, “The Government’s new digital education blueprint wants younger students to get to know AI through hands-on experience, with teachers guiding them and children still doing their own thinking. That’s exactly how 2.0 works. Students can experience multimodal AI, the kind that understands pictures as well as words, so for many children their first real encounter with AI is watching it understand something they drew themselves. They learn what AI can do by using it, and every idea is still theirs. AI should make students more creative, not less.”
ConnectAR Ltd is a Hong Kong education technology company that creates AR and AI learning products and programs for K–12 schools and corporate clients. Its app, originally released as AR Fashion Designer, received a Gold Award at the “Made by Hong Kong” Toys Awards 2019 and a Merit Award in the Toys & Baby Products Awards at the HKTDC Hong Kong Toys & Games Fair 2019.
