Even David Beckham is a fan of Ma Yanli, the former rowing champion who emerged as China's first supermodel and is now renowned as one of its top fashion designers.

Former supermodel Ma Yanli  shows off the soccer jersey she designed for David Beckham during his trip to China last year. [China Daily]

Ma was invited to design a jersey for the former England captain to wear during his China visit last November, and Becks could not have been happier with the result.

"It is my favorite piece of work and David loved it. I combined many Chinese elements into the jersey. I used a lot of black and gold, and I worked a Chinese dragon into the embroidery," she told China Daily last week.

Clearly fond of the color black, Ma turned up for her interview at China World Hotel wearing an understated black dress. At 1.78m, however, she was easy to spot.

"Once an athlete, always an athlete," said the social chameleon. "Like most athletes, I prefer simple casual wear and jeans."

Ma, a former rowing champion in Henan Province, hit the catwalk in 1994 and ranked as China's No 1 model four years later. After modeling for Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Ferragamo and a host of other international designers, she became the country's first model-turned-designer in 1999.

In 2006, she established MaryMa Couture Company, a luxury fashion studio tailored to the needs of local celebrities.

Later in December she made 16 suits and evening dresses for local Olympians, including one for Wang Junxia, winner of the women's 5,000m at the 1996 Atlanta Games, another for China's gold medal-winning women's volleyball team head coach Chen Zhonghe, and yet another for ace spiker Zhao Ruirui.

"I know what kind of things athletes want to wear," she said.

"It was my dream to compete at the Olympics when I took up volleyball at 11. Now my dream is to design beautiful clothes for Olympic champions and make sport more fashionable."

Ma still loves skiing and horse riding, and is probably the most active supporter of the Olympics among China's fashion elite. She has already been selected as an Olympic torchbearer for the Beijing Games and remains a longstanding supporter of a local charity that works to help China's poor mothers.

Don't let her Porsche Cayenne fool you -- she is one of the most down-to-earth members of the country's fashionistas.

She also thinks NBA star Yao Ming sets a terrific example for Chinese athletes.

"Yao has a professional team giving him style tips, but other local stars still need help in dressing properly," she said.

"I want to advise them so they can help build a better image for China overseas," she said, offering her services for free.

As a member of the judging panel for a contest to find costumes for the Beijing Games' award-ceremony hostesses, Ma believes the winning costume should fuse elements from East and West and seek inspiration from modernity and tradition.

"I think the Chinese qipao is a good choice. It can be very modern and stylish if we use new materials and designs," she said.

Humble beginnings

Born to a family of farmers in Henan, Ma never considered becoming a model but volleyball seemed a logical choice -- or at least one way of escaping the drudgery of long hours in the fields.

"It seemed a natural way out for tall girls like me," she said.

At the time, China's women's volleyball team was enjoying phenomenal success on the world stage and a string of world titles. Ace spiker Lang Ping was Ma's personal heroine.

Yet despite captaining the local team, Ma was requested to join the newly established rowing team in the province.

"I had no choice," she said. " I was told that my goal was to win the next National Games as few provinces back then had rowing teams."

For the next three years, life consisted of training, sit-ups, more training, and more sit-ups.

"My abs are still in good shape to this day because of all those workouts," she said, pointing to her flat stomach.

Tragically, all her hard work came to nothing when a waist injury one month before the nationals ruled her out of the tournament.

"That was the biggest setback of my life and I decided to call it quits," she said.

Several months later, Ma reinvented herself in Shanghai as a model. But she knew she had a limited shelf life.

"It's impossible to be a model for a long period of time. Younger girls come up one after another and you can't compete with them."

She decided to enter Dong Hua University, originally named East China Textile Institute of Science and Technology, to learn fashion design.

Starting a design firm brought its own set of challenges, but the same skills that led her to succeed at sports proved transferable to the boardroom.

"It was challenging," she said. "I had no experience of running a company and I've always been awful at accounting. Thankfully, my determination and perseverance paid off."