Model designer fashions her career

Leading fashion designer Mary Ma insists she has achieved success in spite of, and not, because she is a beautiful woman.

The 40-year-old former supermodel and now chief executive officer of Maryma Haute Couture believes her looks had the potential to hold back her career.

"I think there is this prejudice in China - possibly elsewhere too - that beautiful women have no insights into anything or intelligence but have only their appearance going for them. This was a problem when I first started in business," she says.