The years of Mandarina’s biggest evolution: new ways to communicate, to sell and to invent products. The 80’s. These are years of great results and success!

Paolo Trento loves telling how the franchising idea was a brand new concept.
In Italy, Benetton was the only fashion company that had already started this process.

In order to better define the rules of this method of business development, Paolo went to France to visit a franchising fair and started reading some books about this topic.
He listed some easy rules to become a Mandarina Duck’s franchisee: the company gave the furniture for the store and the signboard, goods were in sales account while promotions and sales were decided by MD itself. Read the rest of this entry »

Is everybody back from vacations? I haven’t managed to empty my bag yet and I’m ready to leave for a business trip.

In these days we are working on the Spring/Summer Collection 09, but I’ll give you some advance news for next fall.

The woman we thought of with the Autumn/Winter Collection 07/08 is cosmopolitan and sophisticated. Elegant and charming in her urban, everyday life and informal. A woman in search of new details and unpublished functionalities.

Our colors? Black, fire, earth, forest green, snow and silver.

Techno-natural hybridations for the new Mix line: natural materials, leather and cotton work with high-tech materials like resins and nylon.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m back from my holidays! Today there’s a strange air in the office, everybody would have a lot of things to do, but it’s always hard to restart working after a pause. The coffee breaks are more frequent and longer: people discuss about their travels or their stay on Bologna’s hills. Some colleagues have come back excited and tired after a trip on the road, while others preferred a relaxing vacation at the seaside, swimming under the sun.

I like the fresh temperature of our office in contrast with the Saharian warmth of the Sicilian land. I enjoyed a bit of Sicily sea, but I really love living the places I visit, wandering, discovering , tasting, hearing and smelling what is around me.
In two weeks I had the opportunity to visit a large part of Sicily: from Trapani’s salt-ponds to the arid country of the internal, passing through Palermo and reaching the pistachio land on the Etna volcano: Bronte.
Did you know that the original pistachio ice-cream isn’t light green?

Don’t forget to send me photos of your Mandarina bags on their world travels!

Technorati Tags: Holidays, Sicily

From next Monday on, Mandarina will be closed for a couple of weeks for our summer holidays. It’s time to get away from it all. But whether we’re going to the mountains or the seaside, we mustn’t forget to put a good book in our luggage.

Becky Bloomwood fans cannot miss “Shopaholic & Baby“. The latest, amusing adventures of a London girl who is now a personal shopper in a trendy store.

For people who would like to enter a spiritual and introspective dimension, there’s “Witch of Portobello” by Paulo Coelho, which was released just a few months ago. Athena discovers a new way to see the world through her journey across Romania.

Those who are fond of going on adventures while lying idly on the beach can follow Taita through Egypt in Wilbur Smith’s newest bestseller “The Quest“. If you want to be fully immersed in female thinking, then “The female Brain” is just right for you.

I’m off to Sicily and I plan to read a couple of these books for sure!
I look forward to receiving your summer photos when I get back!

Technorati Tags: Becky Bloomwood, Sophie Kinsella,   Paulo Cohelo, Wilbur Smith, The Quest, holidays