When designer Siying Qu looked for inspiration for her Fall-Winter 2021 collection, she turned her attention to history.

"This collection is inspired by the historical events of the Chinese Transcontinental Railway workers," she said. "When we researched it we found so much detail and the rich history behind it. But it's quite an emotional story as well."

An emotional story that still resonates with Asian Americans more than 150 years later.

"It's a tough time especially for Asian communities who have faced xenophobia and racism during this time," she explained.

Construction of the historic railway started in 1863. The work was brutal and owners turned to California's Chinese community, already victims of racism, to finish the job. But when the work was done instead of thanks, the government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act barring all Chinese laborers from emigrating to the U.S.

Neil Wu-Gibbs, Chief of Staff at the Museum of Chinese in America, said, "after the railroad was completed there were just too many Chinese laborers in the United States. So, they were really becoming a threat to the local community, to local manufacturing, to the local economy.

With an all-virtual Fashion Week, or the American Collections Calender as it's been renamed by the CFDA, Qu decided to shoot her collection at the museum, filled with exhibits that follow the history of Chinese Americans and the discrimination they have faced along the way, room after room of posters showing how unwelcome the Chinese had become.

"You can see some of these posters that are really kind of aggressive, they say Chinese no, no, no and depict the Chinese as villains and a threat to the country," Wu-Gibbs said.

The museum also documents the struggle of Chinese Americans to survive, opening laundries and, of course, restaurants.

"A lot of them were highly educated back in China," said Gibbs, "but they end up having to do very service level jobs."

For decades they battled "micro-aggressions," like insulting depictions in Hollywood films where lead Asian characters were portrayed mostly by white actors. And today, it's the model minority myth, the belief that Asian Americans succeed in the education system at the expense of other ethnic groups.

Qu built this season's Private Policy collection around old photos of the railway workers, combining traditional Chinese looks mixed with American standards like cowboy boots.

"A lot of railway workers kept their traditional clothing from their hometowns which is for functionality as well like the straw hats for the sun," she said.

But for Qu, in the time of COVID-19, this collection is about fashion, with a message.

"Today we think if we welcome more people to understand our culture and then see the details and the whole spectrum of what the culture is all about that will bring everyone together and we'll have more respect for each other," she said.