It was such a pleasant surprise for Tao Wang to see Tiffany Trump, the youngest of U.S. President Donald Trump's two daughters, sitting in the front row at the Chinese designer's New York fashion week show.
"She looks even more beautiful, elegant and confident. I feel very happy and proud. " Wang told Xinhua in an interview on Wednesday. "I would say she chooses her own style rather than Taoray Wang."
The 23-year-old Tiffany, accompanied by her mother, Trump's ex-wife Marla Maples, drew media attention in an off-white V-neck dress and two-toned coat by Taoray Wang, the namesake brand of the Shanghai-based designer, who debuted her Fall/Winter 2017 line in the Skylight Clarkson Square on Saturday.
Evolution of a next-door-girl
"I'm here to support Tao and that comes with the territory. I thought the collection was spectacular, the way she tailors so well and flows in fabrics," Tiffany was quoted as saying at the backstage following the show by Women's Wear Daily, a fashion-industry trade journal.
Tiffany is the only child from her father's six-year marriage to actress and TV personality Maples from 1993 to 1999. She graduated in 2016 with a degree in Sociology and Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, her father's alma mater.
The U.S. first daughter, who grew up in California with her mother, said she is partial to "the classic look, chic, simple - sometimes adding a little bit of an edge, a little girly influence or something more trendy.
"My aesthetic kind of changes. Tao really hits it right on point. She has lace, leather, perfectly tailored jackets. I love it," she said.
The first time Tiffany met Wang was at her Spring/Summer 2017 show on Sept. 12, 2016 in New York.
"Tiffany got to know me from her friend's lookbook and she cancelled her flight to Los Angeles to come to my show that day," Wang, who first debuted her brand at New York Fashion Week in the fall of 2014, recalled.
Wang was very impressed that the young lady is so beautiful and sweet,"just like the girl next door", catering to various requests from audiences for photos with her.
"Tiffany went backstage afterwards, expressed her appreciation of my design, and told me she would follow my brand," Wang said, "I thought she said so just out of courtesy at the moment. But she did write to me soon and we had deeper interaction."
Wang, who studied fashion in Japan after graduating with a degree in history from East China Normal University, was thrilled to know Tiffany, wearing a Taoray Wang's cashmere herringbone dress with lace trim, attended her father's first presidential debate on Sept. 26, 2016.
"At the first sight of Tiffany on TV, she is such a confident and elegant lady in the outfit I made for her, her image of a lovely next-door-girl is no more there, I am glad to see my design come to life on her, " Wang said.
