My job is not only to create new products. I often have to modify the look of a successful line while maintaining its soul, which has become a cult collection.

This is the latest version of MD20. It’s one of our most long-lived collections and the one that has seen the most changes while maintaining its fil rouge: informality, lightness and functionality.

Masculinity and femininity are blended in the history of Italian customs modifying shapes, colors and the objects that fill our life.

The late 80s: MD20 was created to appeal to 20-year olds – hence the number in the brand name. It had a masculine, military style and anodized aluminum accessories. Mandarina Duck became MD, a more decisive sound.

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The Sartorialistis unique in its genre. Scott Schumann has combined his two main passions and interests: fashion and photography.
His blog’s photos are chosen with care and they give everyone a chance to see how people of every age andsocial level are dressed in New York, Paris, Milan or London. He has created an invaluable source of ideas for designers who can find inspiration from the street-style.
Schumann carries a digital camera around and he likes taking shots of people seen on the streets who strike him with their style.

For fashion addicted people, Style.com is the bible of fashion. Here you can find showing of different stylists, read gossip about famous actors or models or discover that you can’t live without a superslim hair straightener decorated with Alexander McQueen skulls.
The Lookbooks is a great tool. Discover a style you like, click it and add it to your personal gallery.
The Italian version was born when we were launching Duck Side and I’m glad to share the same “age” with Style’s friends!

Technorati Tags: Sartorialist, Style, Scott Schumann, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Alexander McQueen, street style

In Italy and Spain we are on air with this campaign:

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Which one do you prefer?

Technorati Tags: advertising, Elle, D, La Repubblica, Vanity Fair

I like to tell new employees about the immense effort made by Paolo Trento and Piero Mannato to build Mandarina Duck. I’ve always been fascinated by the early pioneer adventures when our brand name was still Plastimoda.

Paolo and Pietro have been friends since their childhood together in Borgo Panigale (Bologna), where they had fun fishing in the river, playing tricks and taking refuge in their tree house. However, they also organized lucky dips and puppet shows for the other kids.

Years later, they began traveling to exotic places like Morocco or Turkey – very unusual destinations for that time – in their Fiat 500 (the original!). They always came back with enriched spirits and many adventures to recount. When Paolo (the youngest) finished his military service, it was only natural that they start a company together. Which one? The easiest! They decided to follow in Pietro’s father’s footsteps. Thanks to his electronic welding skills, he specialized in the production of transparent plastic holders for identity cards.
They had a lot of ideas but very little money. Paolo decided to sell his Mini Morris for 400,000 lire and Pietro invested other 400,000 lire, while his father gave them 100,000 lire. With a 500,000 lire deposit and 1,500,000 in loans, they rented the first premises of Plastimoda: the basement of a five-storey apartment building! That was on 18 April 1968.

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Hi, you’ve already heard about me from Ducky, but I’d like to tell you something more about my job. I’ll try to explain how projects and ideas take shape and become Mandarina Duck’s products. We’ll talk about trends and about my favorite places for shopping around the world.

There are no city squares in Tokyo. Shibuya, however, is the exception as there is something that resembles a square in front of the railway station. This area is populated by trees and Hachiko. Or rather by a statue of this famous, faithful dog. In my mind, Hachiko has become the symbol of one of the most trendy districts of Tokyo, where it’s rare to find people over the age of 25.

My work has taken me to Tokyo, London and Paris, where I have strolled along the city streets and come to love the spontaneity and informality of Japanese style.

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The beautiful photos you see here are the ones that accompany my everyday life. They make precious the corridors of the Mandarina headquarters. These are profound images; travel snapshots that have captured the soul of the places where they were taken.

These photos come from the NOCONFINES project promoted by Paolo Trento. This initiative comes from his deep passion for travel, which he defines as ”A way to see beyond our horizons and demolish the barriers between cultures, populations and political systems. To learn about everyday life and economical and political situations in foreign countries. To bring home their triumphs and their tragedies in a suitcase full of memories and reflections.”

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Today I’m going to tell you about Utility, the backpack that made Mandarina Duck famous.

Back in 1977, after a trade fair in Japan, Paolo and Pietro were even surer that they didn’t want to conform to the fixed ideas regarding fashion accessories at the time. When he talks about those days, Paolo always says ”It was a very depressing market, especially due to the dull colors that everyone was using”.

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We have very special moms at Mandarina Duck!
We celebrate Mother’s Day every time a new line takes shape. In fact, we call the initial prototype of a bag “Mamma”.

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Good morning readers. My name is Massimo Venturini and I am the Production Manager for MD. My job often takes me around the world, so Rossana has asked me to share some of my experiences with you on Duck Side. Flights tend to be long, so I’ll have time to tell you something about my job and my “discoveries”.

I recently traveled to New York to collect the Travel & Leisure Design Award 2007 for our Y’s collection and to work on an upcoming project, which I can’t tell you about just yet.

The Big Apple has always fascinated me, the melting pot, the surreal atmosphere, the frenetic life (“The city that doesn’t sleep”, as Frank used to sing). I had a marvelous view from my hotel room. We stayed at the Mandarin Hotel (nice coincidence) which is located on top of the Time Warner Center at the southwestern corner of Central Park.
I’m quite fond of technology, especially Macintosh. Whenever I happen to be in New York, I can’t wait to go down 5th Avenue to the corner of Central Park and be swallowed up by the Apple. Read the rest of this entry »

I would like you to meet Roberto Mineo, our Chief Designer. A couple days ago, I sneaked into his office to discover new things about him and his job.

I found rolls of cloth and leather, panels with photos, travel notes, objects and other things that inspire our designers’ work, and then big tables full of sheets and sketches. Roberto told me that nothing is better than a pencil and a rubber for hand drawing, because thoughts are more fluid and ideas don’t need to be filtered!

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