#MANDARINA LOVES

Brand Director Caroline pictured here looking ahead to Spring Summer 2022. "Design and travel go hand in hand for me," says Caroline, "the one provides inspiration for the other. It is a great synergy." ...

  Although Black and Brown remain the most popular shoe colours, blue is a close second! Dark Blue became the colour of the Royal Navy in 1748. It contrasted beautifully with white and other navies...

We are loafer mad at the moment at Mandarina! The loafer has a wonderful history, first designed in England as a country house shoe for the landed gentry and royalty in the early 1900’s. They were...

Thankfully we live in the modern age of long boots! In days gone by, many moons ago, our ancestors made long boots from 2 pieces of hide or skins sewn crudely together to keep out the weather! The foot...

The full circle is happening. Before Covid it was heels and flats and it then became flats and flats! We listened to you, our customers, and you wanted flat shoes in 2020. You wanted casual too. Our best...

As many of our loyal customers know, we work closely alongside the Harris Tweed mills in the Outer Hebrides. Harris Tweed is a British Wool sheared from Cheviot flocks of sheep. When the cloth is...

Remarkably we have been selling our wonderful shoes around the world for more than 16 years. We were amongst the first, if not the first, shoe company to sell exclusively online, having started out...

Having made a good friend and contact in the Tentmaker's Bazaar in Cairo two years ago, our intrepid Brand Director and Travel Guru has established a supply line for our massively popular cotton canvas...

Our Mandarina sneakers with different coloured laces are one of our longstanding best sellers and led us to collaborate recently on The Spring Fairies photo shoot with the famous London haberdashers  V...

Nothing says Summer like espadrilles and they are making a fashion comeback big time this year. Mandarina (obviously!) has some of the very best choices around. Handmade for us to the highest...

It is always interesting to sneak a behind-the-scenes peak at what goes into running an online fashion retail business like ours. Well, let us introduce ourselves. No 'Devil Wears Prada' scenario...

What to wear when working from home is more of a consideration than you might imagine. Sure, you can sit there in your jim jams and slippers but if you do you will feel neither professional nor motivated. Look...

Hail the return of the shoe clip! For some instant add-on sparkle there is no better way to dress up or regenerate a pair of shoes than a snap on buckle, bow or button. They will give a favourite shoe...

The Mandarina team are thrilled to be able to see the amazing tribute exhibition to Mary Quant which is currently up from London and on show at our very own V&A Dundee - just...

Career girls all, our freelance Mandarina models are the public face of the brand.  Ranging in age from 25 to 60, we hope their pretty feet and lovely faces reflect the broad appeal of our...

Every day is a red letter day at Mandarina. Our rural Scottish location means we can watch the seasons unfold through our own office window -  and there is nothing more beautiful than seeing...

India has a special place in our hearts here at Mandarina as we have derived SO much design inspiration from there over the years. Traditional block prints from Jaipur, sumptuous sari silks from Madras,...

Birdie Fortescue's inspirational interiors collection resonates with Mandarina on many levels. Not only are we both small businesses based in rural locations - Norfolk and Scotland - but we have a...

Autumn is our favourite Mandarina season - every day bringing changing colours to admire and inspire. Perhaps we are biased because orange is synonymous with our brand. The arrival of one of our orange...

As this week (Monday 23 September to be exact) we march briskly into Autumn, and summer shoes gravitate to the back of the cupboard, we at Mandarina want to talk about boots, and in particular our Chelsea...

Recently interviewed by Kettlewell Colours, our Brand Director Caroline Townsend shares the secrets of her design success and gives us a very personal insight into her inspirational life and globetrotting existence.  Read...

A couple of years ago I bought my sister a small pair of 18th Century child’s clogs - Welsh I think - because she loves to paint shoes. I paid £28.  They are charming, historical and...

The iconic actress, beauty and humanitarian Audrey Hepburn would be 90 now (she died of cancer when she was only 63). Known as ‘everybody’s dream girl’ she had beauty and heart, and a...

They look the same do they not? The Mule,  the ballet flat, the ankle boot even the kitten heel. These were shoes made in the 1600's and yet we could be talking about our collections at Mandarina...

Mules are one of the biggest shoe trends for 2020... again! Well ahead of the game, mules have been part of the Mandarina collection since day one in 2004! Every year we do a collection of Mules and next...

CAT WALK TWEED  This season tweed is more downtown than Downtown Abbey. Proof that tweed has shaken off its stuffy reputation is the fact that you’ll find just as much of it in autumn/winter...

A luxury pile.. What fabric says Christmas more than velvet? None. Velvet says glamour, luxury, and comfort. It says something about making an effort. Something special. It doesn’t have to be Christmas:...

Elegant Embellishments.  Double the shoes in you wardrobe with clip on jewels. An exceptional shoe is the ultimate scene- stealer, and this season there are plenty of reasons to shine. From sparkly...

New year - New Shoes Happy New Year! And if New Year means new boots, it means new shoes too. A great choice a girl can make is the Bronte Court Shoe in hyacinth blue and lavender, for lots of good reasons....

Resolutions? How are they going, your new year resolutions??  It’s the 16th of the month, the over-indulgence is over (or at least it really should be by now!) and we’re back to work,...

When you first meet people, first impressions are head to toe! Therefore it is essential to have the right footwear.  Your smile, your style and your footwear! So which footwear is right for...

Lucy Vail Floristry is an award-winning London based Floral Design company specialising in installations and weddings as well as private and corporate events. Renowned for her bold use of colour and theatrical...

We are thinking that shoes have something to do with how you feel on the day you choose the particular pair you put on. Yes, it is true, think about this...  Do you choose your outfit first or do...

The British devotion to dogs can never be under-estimated, and here at Mandarina HQ our two much-loved office hounds Pocket and Bean have shoe collections in their honour! Their close cousin Bear the Pug...

Take a look at the very clever and wonderful Bryony Dalrymple’s Tisan Jewellery collection. Tisan is no ordinary jewellery company. Each piece is hand picked by Bryony and there are always many new...

Someone once said "Caroline, your house is full of wonderful colours". That observation made me actually sit, look and take in the colours in my house. They are colours that I have collected from around...

Based in the foothills of the Scottish Highlands, founder Caroline Inchyra has created a range of unique and timeless fabrics and accessories. From the original archive inspired linens first released in...

Mandarina Shoes and Peachy Belts have collaborated over many years, the best choice of accessories together. We have many similarities in our work ethic, our choice for our customer and our love of...

Annabel & Grace (formerly CountryWives) and Mandarina Shoes have been in partnership a long time supporting each other as flourishing small brands with a similar demographic of wonderful fans! Reading...

Shandur in Northern Pakistan invites visitors to experience a traditional polo tournament which since 1936 has been held annually in the first week of July between the local teams of Gilgit and Chitral....

The Hotel Guru's mission is simply to find and review THE best places to stay around the world. They only include independent reviews of hotels that they are happy to recommend. Cleverly, they have...

We posted on Instagram when Caroline went to see the Andy Warhol Exhibition. Shoe design has always fascinated us of course and pushing the boundaries on shape and style but keeping perspective is what...

Calling all women, you can never have too many shoes. Successful women can still have their feet on the ground, they just wear better shoes. Shoes can change your life, just ask Cinderella.  A woman...

“You are only as good as your last collection” is something we often hear in the retail shoe industry. At Mandarina Shoes we have several shoe and boot collections running at once to give the...

We were delighted when Tricia Cusden from the iconic Look Fabulous Forever contacted us and asked if she could showcase three of our Mandarina Shoes on Tea Time with Tricia, her daily Covid-born live...

Did you know that colours really mean so many things? When we were thinking about colour matches on our new Autumn/Winter collection I came across this amazing website Colour Matters explaining why colour...

In 2020 as we all know, so many annual events have been cancelled. We have been looking back at photos of past years especially memories of the sporting calendar that require shoes and hats in abundance! Royal...

Emma Caderni specialises in sourcing and selling stylish and iconic pieces of 20th century fashion, accessories and jewellery for a discerning cliente. A graduate in Italian and Art History, Emma...

Suede has a softness and beauty that we all take for granted. It is the most versatile of materials to work with for shoes and boots as it moulds, stretches and dyes. It has actually been around for...

Clare Arbuthnott is a contemporary Scottish artist living in Edinburgh. Her work focuses on her native landscape, its coast and particularly the island of Iona. We thought we would match our suede Pollyanna...

At Mandarina Shoes we have been designing beautiful  Wedding Shoes for Brides, Bridal parties and Guests for more than 15 years. We have been seen on Royal feet, and up and down the red carpet at...

We are delighted to Showcase Rebecca O'Connor 's glorious Beatitude Essential Oils. We thought that the synergy of creating from scratch brought us together as unique brands and we chose our...

We had never sold sneakers before! It was quite a thing when we started with espadrilles 5 years ago, but sneakers?  We dipped our toe in the water initially with a basic plimsoll range, and then...

“Are made for walkin’”, a husky-voiced Nancy Sinatra told the world in 1966… Well, more than fifty years later, baby, there never was a truer word. From style maven, Alexa Chung,...

Covid has caused us to re-evaluate a lot of things in life, not least of all the way we dress. We are now bombarded on a daily basis with pictures of slouchy pyjama sets, cashmere hoodies, yoga pants etc Add...

Time spent at home during lockdown has definitely focussed our attention on the kitchen! Everybody seems to be cooking up a storm and sharing their creations on WhatsApp and Instagram. And what can...

Dressing down during the Corona Pandemic shut-in has made us all get creative with haberdashery!  Velvet trims and interesting buttons have revamped cardigans, the 70s craze for adding embroidery...

Have you noticed the current fad for Fair Isle?  That nostalgic patterned knit of our childhood days is back with a BANG! Well, here at Mandarina we are delighted by this new trend. Fair Isle is right...

What shoes and boots do you take on a City work trip when you have hand-baggage only? We posed this question to our travel mad Brand Director, Caroline, who has become a skilful packer over...