While I was in the marketing office today, I looked through Search, a magazine on works by architects, designers and emerging artists.
It has a very modern look even though it belongs to Search for Art published by Mandarina Duck, which won the “most innovative project” award in the Guggenheim Enterprise and Culture Awards of 2000!

Digging into an old database, I found a broom-shaped egg holder, a sheep-shaped backpack, a carpet-bed, images from metropolitan streets and colorful mural paintings.
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If I were to say “Murano“, what would you think of?
You’d probably think of either the island that is world famous for glass blowing or the city of Venice.
It was Mardi Gras a while ago and, as usual, Carnival events in the lagoon were quite distinctive. This year, the theme was Sensation.

At Mandarina Duck, Murano recalls our Fall-Winter 2001 bag collection created by Marcel Wanders.

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A while ago, a blog reader had asked me about our advertising campaign from 1998 to 1999, which had impressed her very much. The image was of a just-married elderly couple coming out of a church, which had also been used as a store banner.
According to the blog reader, the ad communicated a positive brand image and emphasized people who had worked hard all their lives.

While I was going through the Mandarina Duck archives, I found these images of “2037: a future documentary”.
This campaign ran for three consecutive seasons and its mission was to talk about a not-too-distant future.

Show as slideshow

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“Utility” was a revolutionary product for its modern material, its range of colours and the fun and freshness that it injected into a grey market.
Do you remember the Paninari who wore Timberland shoes, Best Company sweaters and a different coloured Mandarina knapsack every day?

The “Tank” travel line was as successful abroad as the “Utility” line was in Italy.
How did it all get started? Once, while travelling in the United States, Paolo and Giorgione bought a black nylon suitcase.
After they got home, Pietro showed it to Piero and they agreed that then was the right moment to create a new and bolder men’s travel line. The colour black was chosen because it was very trendy at that time.
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The nineties will never be forgotten thanks to all the important historical events that changed Europe in that decade, including the reunification of East and West Germany and the Maastricht treaty, which ratified the creation of the European Union.
Several important Mandarina collections were launched in that decade, including MD20 and Work, the business and travel line, which, thanks to several restylings are both still in vogue.

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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 »

Innovative communication has always been a priority for Mandarina Duck.
Throughout the past, there have been many examples of this innate attitude and the Eighties were host to many original happenings!
The relationship between Mandarina Duck and Giorgione can only be described as either an erupting volcano or an overflowing river, not just regarding ideas but also facts, events and news.

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After finding the financing and the staff to handle all the orders taken at the Mipel fair, Paolo and Pietro embarked on a period of enormous change and success.
Back in the Seventies, Mandarina had just launched Utility and chosen Mandarina Duck as the brand name for its products.
They had said a final goodbye to clients that sold trinkets in favor of leather wholesalers.

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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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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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