Looking in the first lady's mirror

When Peng Liyuan stepped off the plane in Moscow, the whole world wanted to know who dressed the elegant first lady. Chen Jie lifts the veil on designer Ma Ke.

Peng Liyuan has been wearing Ma Ke's designs for more than a decade, a fact that was only highlighted recently when the first lady accompanied her husband President Xi Jinping on his first state visit to Russia and three African countries. The elegant and glamorous Peng, formerly a popular singer, has been compared to the US' first lady Michelle Obama and France's Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, since stepping off the airplane in Moscow on March 22. Suddenly, everyone was curious to know more about the first lady's wardrobe.

Even so, Ma has been reluctant to raise the veil, as she prefers a low-key approach. "If you eat a tasty egg why would you want to see the hen?" she says of all the media attention.