Chinese designer denied visa to attend New York Fashion Week amid US-China trade war
- Chinese designer Xiaojuan Yang, founder of independent label I Love Pretty, and her team have been denied visas
- The number of Chinese tourists travelling to the US has declined recently amid tensions between the White House and Beijing
Chinese designer Xiaojuan Yang, founder of independent label I Love Pretty, and her team have been denied visas to travel to the United States next month. According to various reports, Yang applied for a visa at the American Consulate in Guangzhou, China, but the application was turned down and no specific reason was given for the denial.
According to Forbes, 17 per cent fewer business and tourists visas issued to Chinese nationals in the first 5 months of this year, compared to the same period in 2018.
The I Love Pretty designer, who in the past has shown her collections in fashion capitals such as Paris and Milan, is still planning to show her spring-summer 2020 range. The show will happen without Yang and her staff on September 6.
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Yang’s visa refusal comes at a time when New York is trying to become more welcoming to international designers.
Fashion designer Tom Ford, the newly appointed chairman of the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America), recently said that “the future of American fashion rests on an increased global perspective” and has made it his mission to make American fashion more international and New York more appealing to global designers, journalists and buyers.
