First lady's designer Ma Ke keeps elegance simple(2)

Ma Ke (left) works with a rural artisan on a fashion design in her Zhuhai workshop.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Exception produced simple yet attractive women's ready-to-wear clothes and secured a number of loyal high-end customers, including Peng.

In 2001, when Peng, then a popular singer, was performing in Guangzhou, Ma was introduced to her by a TV reporter. Ma designed the dress for Peng's performance at the 2002 China Central Television Spring Festival Gala, the popular annual TV show.

When Peng asked Ma to design a dress for her first state visit, she agreed without hesitation.

"I believe if the first lady dresses in a simple but elegant way and presents unique Chinese traditions, people of the country would follow the style," she says.

Exception, meanwhile, has grown into a big company, driven by Mao's ambition. But Ma's true calling lay elsewhere.

The more she traveled through China's countryside, she says, the more she realized that traditional craftsmanship was dying in the villages and that she could help revive the heritage through alternative fashion.

In 2006, Ma moved to Zhuhai, another city in Guangdong. She and Mao divorced.

"The fashion industry pushes people to change their wardrobes every season. Actually, we don't need to. I can wear a comfortable piece for five, six or even 10 years. When I was young, my mother would wear my grandmother's clothes and my mother passed hers to me. It still happens in villages," Ma says.

She rented a private garden that had once belonged to Tang Shaoyi (1862-1938), the first premier of the Republic of China. She turned it into a workshop and recruited some 20 rural craftsmen to spin cotton, weave and dye the clothing on machines that were used a century ago.

Ma's new label Wu Yong means "useless" in Chinese.

"Everything in nature is useful. There are many things that people consider useless and throw away, but they are in fact useful. It's dangerous to use up all of nature's resources and not recycle them," she says.

Didier Grumpach, then-chairman of the Federation Francaise de la Couture, a respected figure in world fashion, visited her in Zhuhai and invited her to present at the Paris Fashion Week.

In 2008, at her Paris Haute Couture Week showing, models performed tai chi to Mongolian music.

The idea of offering people an eco-friendly lifestyle came to her last year after she was invited to visit the 77 Creative Industry Park in Beijing. She decided to step outside the comfort of her Zhuhai workshop and move beyond clothes.

Following months of preparation, Ma opened her new workshop at the same industry park in Beijing, where she displays clothes and household goods that are all made from natural material.

Her vision helps rural artisans too.

"I will not sell clothes in big shopping malls," Ma says.