Fashion Designer Marco: Clothing Carries The Way (1)

Who is the knit of the Han Dynasty?

Of

Tired of having made her famous line garments, she just wanted to make real hands.

Peng Liyuan's body in the Navy Blue waist coat made her fame overflow the original embankment to a wider area.

In fact, whether it is customizing clothing for the first lady or digging out the traditional handicrafts of Guizhou rural women, this is an attempt to try to influence the national values.

Marco is doing something more like a moral project for the country to import values that she believes are positive energies.

The first lady's wear represents the value orientation.

It sounds incredible that in 2013, when first lady Peng Liyuan found designer Ma Ke, a designer who had lived in Zhuhai for a long time, invited her to design a series of custom-made clothing for later state visits, Ma Ke once considered refusing.

There was not enough reason for refusing. After 2008, mark almost disappeared in Beijing, and decided to officially launch her brand that had been struggling for many years in this year, "useless".

"At that time, it was already very urgent and it was necessary to reply as soon as possible. Is it acceptable to do this? I am not willing to stop, because the useless process is just in the plan, and it is at a critical time.

Marco recalled to reporters that she replied that she had to think about it.

She thought about it for two days.

"The number of useless teams is not large. If we want to do so, we must do our best and the useless time must be postponed.

Marco said, as a designer for so many years, she knows too well that the style behind clothing is actually a concept of value.

Finally, she persuaded herself that "what the first lady wears is a value oriented thing in China. If the first lady wears an international brand, then the whole nation will wear international brand names. If the first lady wears very simple and simple things, the whole nation will follow suit. I have some hunches. I know that the first lady will have some influence. Her dressing style positioning represents the value orientation of an era.

Is it not what I expect to achieve through useless?

When interviewed by "people", he was careful and only revealed some details.

To do is to "succeed but fail."

The two sides have been tacit for years. "I am not the kind of designer who can go against his heart."

More than a month, Marco took a team to make several outfits.

The design continues the Marco's simple and simple style, without exaggerated modelling and eye-catching color.

Peng Liyuan's first appearance with President Xi Jinping's visit to Russia is the dark blue waist coat and handy handbag from Marco's hand.

Marco has a lofty ambition to influence the value orientation of a country and the times. She also plays a low key role. Keeping silence is a matter of character, not from the top.

Yuan Yanghan is the warehouse director of Marco's studio, a Hunan girl who has followed Marco for over 10 years.

She told people reporters that Marco had a meeting to ban employees from talking about the matter outside.

"I don't understand. I feel like I've done it. Why can't I say it?" yuan is responsible for packing the first lady's clothes. "I feel very happy when things are over," said Ma. "How can you be more excited than me?"

Prior to that, mark was already recognized as the top designer in China's fashion design industry.

This not only refers to the honor she gained -- numerous industry awards and international recognition, but also became the first Chinese designer to enter the Paris fashion week in 2008.

The first appearance of Peng Liyuan as the first lady in March 2013 made the popularity of mark overflow beyond the original embankment.

But until a year and a half later, the useless living space opened in Beijing, and Marco continued to concentrate on his original watercourse, holding an unusual cold attitude towards fame and wealth.

"No, I never thought about it. If I thought about it, I wouldn't be mark.

I have only two choices to do or not to do.

Once I choose to do it, all I want in my head is design.

"

A graphic designer who has worked with Marco has noticed that there is a lack of contradiction in Mark's body: he is born in the Northeast but has a soft voice and posture of the southern people, but everywhere shows the strength of being independent of worldly prejudices. She longs for her design ideas to be accepted by more people but is extremely reluctant to expose herself.

Just as she once co founded the clothing brand "exception", Ma participated in the history of Chinese costume design, but it was not compatible with the rules of vanity fair.

Hobbies, but also for the first lady design clothing, but at the same time spend more energy in the Guizhou rural women's folk handicraft inheritance; she treats employees with strict requirements of perfectionists, but does not ask the origin to select talents only because this person is attentive enough; she is ashamed to talk about money, and never defines herself as a commercial designer. Actually, friends who know her all think she is an anti commercial designer, but in order to save the last designer brand, the sales decline can take over the responsibilities of the general manager, complete the upgrading of products, and even predict the 3 consecutive months of single shop monthly sales. Mark is totally different in fashion: she doesn't collect celebrity customers like other designers.

All this, when Marc told the designer that "clothes are not for the purpose of seeing, but for the body to feel", and asked the designer to try on useless clothes before discussing them, the designer had to use "very mark" to describe this requirement.

{page_break}

Just want to do real clothes that are not related to fashion.

"I am not mixed up in costume circles, nor am I mixed up in art circles. I do not belong to any circles.

Marco stressed to reporters.

She doesn't watch shows, she doesn't go shopping, and even fashion magazines are lazy.

In the attitude of "cherish the words", she treated the media with caution, rarely interviewed, lived in a simple way, and resisted ordinary people's difficulties. Even at the exception of 15th anniversary celebrations, she was not present as a brand founder.

Many employees who had worked in exceptions also had little contact with her, and her office door seemed to remain closed forever. "She was designing inside, rarely coming out and annoying.

A former exception employee, who did not want to be named, recalls that he had seen mark one or two times in 3 years of exceptional work.

The only "accident" is the documentary "useless" recorded by Jia Zhangke in 2007. It recorded the first time that mark took part in the fashion week in Paris.

After that, Jia Zhangke found Marco, hoping to fill in some shots about her. "You were making a movie," Marco woke up. She had always thought that Jia Zhangke was just shooting some internal data.

4 months later, "useless" won the best documentary award of the Venice Film Festival. The jury praised the documentary for its attention to the living conditions of all kinds of Chinese people in the consumption era. Jia Zhangke, the heroine of Marco, marks the whole picture of the whole Chinese society.

"No one can recognize me before Jia Zhangke's movie. I'm so happy. Wherever I go, I can do whatever it takes.

One day in July, mark took a subway in Beijing, and a young boy came up and asked, "are you Marco?" she nodded her head. Sometimes she would deny it and then walk away quickly. The boy was surprised: "I didn't expect you to take the subway, too." then what do you think I should sit? "Anyway, you should not take the subway.

"

"Then I told him that I was sitting, and I often sat down.

Ma smiled and recalled that day she took out a bus card from her pocket: "you see, I still have a monthly ticket."

"

On the second day of Peng Liyuan's debut in Moscow with his custom made costume, China's A share market has seen a significant increase in its clothing related concept stocks.

It's hard for the media to interview her and write various columns.

Hong Huang, a Chinese designer shop investor, menthol, wrote an article for the New York Times. He recalls seeing Marco 6 years ago in the fashion week of Paris. Marco did not accept her interview. Hong Huang wrote with a pique: "Mark's famous saying is," do you have to see an old hen laying eggs? "

Rarely speaking in public, it was accepted by her alma mater, Soochow University, to invite her to be an internal lecture for students after becoming a part-time professor.

She said that compared with successful people, she prefers quiet life, working and caring for her daughter during the day, reading and studying in the evening.

A student inquired about Peng's work. She asked why she mentioned it repeatedly. She recalled that she had met Peng Liyuan for the first time in Guangzhou in 2002.

In 2003, mark designed the performance of Spring Festival gala for Peng Liyuan.

In the eyes of Marco, Peng Liyuan is an amiable, enthusiastic sister to the environment and public welfare. In the end, she reminds her classmates that they should "shut their mouths and open their hearts" in designing.

"Later in Nantong, many journalists came to ask this question.

She said, if you ask Peng Liyuan, I will not answer.

Marco's university teacher, Huang Ju Ju, told the characters that 3 companies have found her hoping to cooperate with Marco, "she declined me.

"

Marco's studio on the edge of Zhuhai was discovered by some people.

A boy from Beijing has been at the door for 3 days, hoping to work for Marco, and fans who have come to ask for volunteers, though he doesn't know what he can do, or just "see Ma teacher side".

In those months, Marco had to sneak home from the back door of the studio to avoid the long guns and short guns in the doorway.

"I am afraid of fame, and there is no other purpose." because once you become a celebrity, you have no freedom.

In the evening of the end of September, mark sat in the reception room of the studio and accepted the third interview of the characters.

This is a space with almost no decoration marks. The grey brick floor is made up of several pieces of old wooden boards and tables and chairs. The tabletop is uneven, and two or three green black moss are visible in the seam.

The parents asked, why don't you make a ceiling? Look at how beautiful it is to make smallpox.

"You say, can I listen? I am not that kind of aesthetic.

Marco laughed.

At this time, when Zhuhai was just entering the early autumn, the weather was not so sultry, and Marco wore a white linen dress, thin and braid, occasionally showing the shy of the little girl.

The production of useless workshops is all natural handmade. She invited some craftsmen who master traditional needlework technology from remote southwest mountain areas.

Marco's design starts with the weave pattern of hand weave, then to manual sewing and plant dyeing.

Though slow, it is pleasurable.

She was tired of the previously made up garments that made her famous. She only wanted to make real clothes for her hands, those that serve people's daily life and face their hearts for real, rather than the "essential things to show off or build up a certain image" to the outside world.

Lin Huaimin, the founder of Cloud Gate dance in Taiwan, appreciated the design of Marco and invited her to design costumes for the new design. "She cares about the space between the cloth and the body.

"When Lin Huaimin dancers put on his clothes, he had a wonderful sense of" coming and going "with the air and wind. An impatient dancer could make a slow motion which was not good at before.

"After all these years, under the influence of western fashion, all people are inferiority, one is that its price is high, and the second is to be skinny and skinny, so you can catch up with the fashion.

Lin Huaimin said that Marco's clothes can be worn in any shape, "so in order to wear those expensive clothes, I should thin myself to death. I don't know what I'm doing. I think this is going to be crooked.

"

Lin Huaimin first met Marco and watched the performance of Vietnamese Vietnamese choreographers in Macao.

The dancer is a real Vietnamese farm woman. Marco is not excited.

After the performance, she ran back to the backstage to chat with the old people, and her language was blocked. She didn't let them go until the old people said they wanted to go back to the hotel.

"It's funny.

Lin Huai min joked, "I am quite different. I think I like them very much, and then I say a few words. Then I go to bed.

"

The "brave" horse can be put into practice by putting the "useless" into the market.

In September 9, 2014, she held the first domestic conference on useless works at a creative park in the center of Beijing City, and announced that Beijing's useless living space was officially opened.

Performing in an open rooftop, full of strong religious sense, an Aboriginal singer in Taiwan Preludes, 33 tall, short, fat and thin performers, black, white, elderly, and children dressed in coarse sacks, slowly walking into the stage.

{page_break}

The performers gathered together, stepped on simple steps, and stamped on the ground with their feet. The glass candlestick on the floor was making more and more rhythmic noises in the jitter. Ma could weep. Afterwards, she explained that modern society emphasized individuality and self, but she saw from this dance the foundation of the survival of the ancestors. The commonness of group cooperation always surpasses the strength of individual differences.

"This is a common thing of all ethnic groups that still retain the original ecological lifestyle. People gather together, hand in hand, head on top of the sky, and step on the ground. As long as we repeat simple actions, we can bring inner feelings and happiness to each other. What else do we want?" after several performances, several actors told Marco that they finished the performance while weeping.

At the end of the show, the two old men led a group of people away in a direction. They went home, the lights went out, and the guests who were immersed in the darkness did not return to God for a while. There were no flowers and applause that were usually finished in the fashion show. They were guided in the silence to the wide open field downstairs. On the wall of the rust colored small theatre, they played 4 words, "useless home", and a bunch of warm colored lights sprinkled on Marco.

"I don't want to say anything.

Two weeks later, she told reporters that she wanted to explain what was useless, but at that moment, she felt that her language was too pale, and everything she wanted to say was in the performance.

What is useless to do? In an article written in 2007, "my understanding of the identity of fashion designers", she gave the answer: "I am not satisfied with the practicality and decoration of clothing in life. I believe that the greatest and noblest motive of creation should be from the concern of" close heart "to the ultimate concern of human beings - caring for people's feelings and caring for the human spiritual world.

This concern includes love, but it is broader and more unconditional than love.

"

{page_break}

Open up a high-end road for Chinese handicrafts

Two weeks later, Martin Lhopol and Marine Leherpeur came to Beijing to visit the useless space. She was a senior fashion consultant who traveled between China and France.

After seeing Mark's release in Paris in 2008, she immediately fell in love with "handmade clothes." at that time, I had worked in fashion for nearly 40 years, but I asked myself, what is fashion? She came at this time.

Martin, who has been walking in China since the end of the 70s, has two China. One is the material contact, the most successful and the pursuit of famous brands in daily work. The other is the simple and natural Chinese countryside, and Marco represents her favorite part, a "true and beautiful ancient oriental country".

The useless space in Beijing is about more than 1000 square meters. The height of nearly 6 meters is divided into two layers: rough and mottled old wooden floor, dark and deep lighting settings, and the overall design is completely the opposite of modern life, which makes people suddenly enter the distant memories of childhood.

The cup of the host bedroom, the Trojan of the children, the copper glasses box of the study...

In order to maintain this wonderful atmosphere, useless hours are limited to a limited number of people.

There is no general shopping guide, no discount season, no VIP card, Ma can not allow employees to sell products, she thinks that a person needs only a few clothes a year, enough, so the shop assistant here is called "useless life consultant", in addition to leading you home in the deep lane, but also responsible for telling the story behind the item.

Some stories are Marco's personal experiences.

She once attended a 4 day forum, except one of her classmates who didn't know she was a famous designer at first.

But during the 4 days, the participants wore clothes every day according to the customary custom of modern society. Only then did she wear the same spring and autumn coat for the rest of her life. When the public learned that she was Marco, she asked her in surprise, "why don't you follow the routine of changing clothes every day as a fashion designer?" Marco asked, "do you change clothes everyday?"

Marco said, it is necessary to wash clothes when they are buried. As long as they are clean, there is no need to change their clothes every day. Why do they comply with the rules of self handicapping for others' evaluation? Besides, how much water should be used for washing clothes too often, and the life of clothes will also be reduced.

Everything should be moderation.

That day, Martin's life consultant is Marco himself.

After entering the bedroom, Martin looked at a dark orange linen Chinese jacket. Marco said that the dress was called "jade" - every product had its name, and Martin could pick up a pair of trousers and a shirt called "Shu".

She could not wait to find the fitting room. She immediately took off her coat and put "jade" on her body.

She recalled that 5 years ago, Marco gave her a long dress made of silk and cotton. "That's my favorite. I always wear it when I go out at night."

It has not changed much, the older the better.

"

Martin finally bought the Chinese jacket, 7300 yuan, but she could not take it away immediately.

In order to avoid unnecessary inventory and unnecessary waste, it is generally necessary to wait for one or two months if there is any need for the guests to do so. If the weather is bad or some vegetable dyes are scarce, it may take longer.

"You know one person is doing it for you, which gives more meaning to that.

Martin said such a wait is worth it. "Our society is too fast, you buy it, you spend it, and then throw it away, especially in China.

And this is the opposite. It's almost the first time to expect to meet the thing that was born for you.

"

The cheapest product of useless space is tea seed powder, 10 yuan a Jin, used for washing dishes, is the best natural substitute for chemical detergent.

Most of the price is above thousands or tens of thousands of yuan.

Soon after the opening of the meeting, there was a commentary questioning that the highly controlled ma ke produced a "super luxury", which in itself had a contradiction.

In the face of criticism, Mark looked a little excited. "A hand woven fabric needs 3 months to start from weaving. A single sheet of 4 seams, lined with two different stitches, takes 3 days to work. Isn't time the most luxurious? The price of handmade goods should not be low. The cheap manufactured goods are just the direct cause of the rapid extinction of handicrafts.

Mark hopes to open up a high-end road for Chinese traditional handicrafts. "Tens of thousands of famous brand handbags are not blinking, but a time-consuming handmade sheet will be expensive. Artisans' carefully tailored clothes are far more than their own functions. They are Memoirs of a family's blood that can be handed down for generations."

Before the pricing of the product, some useless employees think that the price should be set higher. Mark can insist on making reasonable pricing, and will not be consistent with the big international brands.

As a social enterprise, useless is not the first goal of making profits. But in order to maintain the ability of self hematopoiesis, so that there will be enough funds to support and develop folk handicrafts in the future, it is also necessary to make profits.

"I think Marco is very brave. She is creating a new pattern of clothing sales.

In the mail interview with people, Hong Huang, the famous fashion media man, said he would like to be a customer of mark, a Chanel coat about 50 thousand. According to this logic, the Chinese market should also accept useless. "China's clothing market is the same as Chinese Society -- polarization.

Otherwise Taobao would be very cheap, otherwise it could bear a very high price. I am glad that mark can enter the service of China's high price clothing because the market has been occupied by foreign brands so far, and it can be a good news for China to have a Chinese brand, especially Marco.

"