From stunt to stardom: Chinese couple defies stereotypes with fashion

It began, as many great internet stories do, with a joke at home. In 2024, Nurbiye had gained a little weight and found that some of her clothes no longer fit the way they used to. Instead of letting the outfits sit untouched in the wardrobe, she handed them to her husband, Mardan, and asked him to try them on.

What happened next surprised them both. Mardan (36), put on Nurbiye's clothes and suddenly looked less like a husband helping out with a closet problem and more like a living mannequin in an experimental fashion shoot. Nurbiye (37) was surprised by how good he looked in her clothes and even compared him to a member of the Italian rock band Måneskin.

"He had the temperament of Måneskin, like a rockstar," Nurbiye recalled the moment as we chat via video call.

They laughed, filmed a short video and posted it online just for fun and it went viral almost overnight.

For Nurbiye and Mardan, who live in Foshan, Guangdong Province, but are Uygur and originally from Urumqi in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the attention was unexpected.

"We didn't post a lot of videos before this. We are not celebrities, our videos don't go viral either," she said. "It's crazy," added Mardan.

Initially, friends had warned the couple that people might react badly to a man wearing women's clothing, and the pair even agreed they would delete the post if the comments became too harsh. But instead of rejection, they mostly found curiosity, amusement and a wave of support. Viewers were fascinated by the way Mardan carried the clothes, and many began joking that Nurbiye's husband looked better in her outfits than she did.

Before the viral moment, they had never planned to enter the fashion industry.

"It wasn't us choosing fashion," they said. "It was fashion that found us."

Their story as a couple began long before the clothes. They met through mutual friends and spent about a month chatting online before meeting in person. At first, Nurbiye found Mardan's slicked-back hair and serious appearance a little intimidating.

"He looked like a gangster with his hair pulled back," she laughed.

But his gentle manner soon changed her mind. After many offers to take her out for coffee, he finally got a date, drew a portrait of her and pursued her patiently. After several years together, the happy couple married in 2019.

Art has always been part of their relationship and has led to their fashion world entry.

Mardan studied art and later returned to graduate school in his 30s, surrounded by classmates much younger than him. That experience, they say, refreshed his outlook and helped revive his desire to create. Nurbiye previously worked in beauty, doing makeup and eyebrow tattoos, which shaped her own visual instincts. Neither of them trained professionally in fashion, but together they developed a strong eye for color, silhouette and mood.

"She is very talented in design," Mardan gushed about his wife. "Her understanding of color and shapes are beyond my imagination. I found that she has an advantage that I don't have, that he has not studied design or art or anything like that. Why do I say this is an advantage? She is not bound by the theories inside. She thinks about what looks good and doesn't think about other aspects. She just thinks purely from aesthetic."

"I'm just playing around," added Nurbiye. "He'll say he has an idea, and I say okay, let's try it and then we try it."

After the first video blew up, they started a video series. Sometimes they both wear the same outfit and compete playfully over who wears it better. Sometimes Mardan poses in dramatic, sculptural ways inspired by classical art. Other times the couple showcase designs by friends, former classmates and independent designers who may not have the resources to promote their work widely.

Nurbiye and Mardan have not yet launched a fully original clothing line of their own, but they have opened their platform to emerging designers.

"Mardan studies art, so his classmates are engaged in this kind of clothing design. He has many friends with various designs and we gradually followed those to collaborate with them. We wore their clothes to show them (on our platform)," said Nurbiye.

"On our homepage, we also clearly state that we welcome these designers to bring their works here. Because their works may be difficult to be seen by the outside world. We are actually letting some good designs be seen by more people," Mardan added.

Depending on the concept, one video might take two or three days to prepare; more complicated ideas can take a week. Now, what started as a joke, also became a challenge to gender rules in clothing. Mardan is comfortable wearing clothing traditionally labelled as women's wear. Clothes, they say, are simply fabric. Labels like "men's" and "women's" are definitions created by society, and those definitions change across cultures and time.

"Whether it's men's or women's clothing, it's defined by people. In today's society, or in a specific historical period, its definition is different. For example, in Scotland, men also wear kilts. In history, there are many examples of men wearing skirts. So, when I wear this kind of clothes, I don't define it as men's or women's clothing. I just feel that after wearing this dress, I'm still being myself," said Mardan.

"I feel that the clothes he wears is rather to interpret his temperament. It's a bit like a sculpture… like the art works he learns and paintings. For example, when he poses, he is imitating some of the movements in those paintings," said Nurbiye.

Mardan has noticed, through wearing Nurbiye's clothes, how much richer and more detailed many women's designs can be compared with conventional men's fashion. Their videos are funny, stylish and sometimes theatrical, but they are not heavy-handed. They share the idea that perhaps fashion does not need to be as narrow as people think.

Of course, not everyone applauds. Some commenters have criticized Mardan for wearing women's clothing or argued that the couple are setting a bad example. At first, the negativity hurt. Mardan felt angry, and the couple had to learn how to process the comments without letting them reshape their work.

"There is not only one right way, but these people who criticize me are fixed in their ideas, they think there is only one correct way," said Mardan. "But in fact, there can be many kinds of correctness. We can eat fruit for breakfast, we can eat milk and eggs, it's also right. I can eat meat for breakfast. There's no right or wrong."

Over time, they decided many critics were reacting from limited experience rather than malice. Their answer has been to keep creating, not to argue.

The supportive responses, however, far outweigh the negative ones. Their families have also taken the videos in stride.

Nurbiye recalled showing the clips to Mardan's parents. They watched in silence for a few seconds before his father, trying not to laugh, offered only one piece of advice:

"It's alright, just don't be too sexy," Nurbiye said with a laugh.

Her own mother worried more about online trolls than the clothes themselves. Now their parents watch the videos, send likes and flower emojis, and proudly share them with friends.

The couple's proudest moments have gone beyond social media numbers – although Nurbiye admits that one of her highlights on this journey was making the top searched list on social media.

Another proud moment was when Mardan later created a performance art exhibition in Urumqi called Labels, inspired by the way people projected assumptions onto him simply because of what he wore. For the work, he stood in a 10-meter-long garment and invited visitors to write on the fabric. Instead of insults, the garment filled with blessings, drawings and warm messages. 

At home in Foshan, the couple are still learning as they go. They dream about building their clothing platform, Adan, into a space for independent designers. They also hope that what they do reaches an international market and opens the world's eyes to the diversity and creativity available in China.

"Our videos have also been forwarded by overseas bloggers. It's said that overseas people like it. Because everyone saw something different, like, 'oh, there are also bloggers like this in China. They also dress very well. They're not very conservative. Wow, China is so good and inclusive,' which makes us very happy," said Nurbiye.

Their advice to other creators is simple: start. Do not wait for a certificate, a title or permission from strangers online.

After all, their whole adventure began with a wife's clothes not fitting, a husband willing to try them on and a joke that turned into a statement. Sometimes, the most interesting fashion stories do not begin on a runway. Sometimes they begin with laughter.