Dan Washburn's Shanghai Diaries

It was a perfect day | 09.30.2006

There are lots more images in the photo gallery ... and thousands more at Flickr.

Please visit my new personal blog!

Here’s the link:

blog.danwashburn.com.

And here is the new RSS feed:

feeds.feedburner.com/danwashburn

The new site is still a work in progress, but that is where I am posting things these days.

I will no longer be updating Shanghai Diaries, which should have been pretty obvious to anyone who has bothered to check the site the past year or so.

It was time for a change.

So come and check me out.

07.05.2007, 4:41 PM · Site News

Feature

Introducing Mudan Boutique

I have hinted at it a couple times on this site, and now I am finally ready to go public with my latest project. It’s a bit of a departure for me, but something I am really excited about. It’s an online store called Mudan Boutique. To start, we are featuring affordable pearls and jade and a variety of handbags, fashion accessories and gift items — all of which embody an Asian aesthetic. (We’re offering free worldwide shipping until July 17, too.)

Most exciting to me right now are the partnerships we are forging with local Shanghai designers, like Fiona Peng of Punk Pilgrim and Christine Tsui of Christine Tsui’s Fashion Club on Xinle Lu. That duo is responsible for Mudan Boutique’s current crop of handbags and clutches. And we’re currently working on adding more items from different local designers to the store — products and designs that until now were only available in small stores and boutiques in Shanghai.

Surprised by this? Yeah, me too. But something about Shanghai turns almost everyone into an entrepreneur. Ask most people what they do here, and their answer usually begins with, “Well, that’s a good question …” Most people I know have a few irons in the fire here. Maybe that’s why some people are calling Shanghai the new city of dreams.

So, I invite you to take a look at Mudan Boutique. I am really proud of the way the shop looks right now, and I really like the products we have been able to find thus far. We’re a small “company” — just a couple of us here in Shanghai and couple of my oldest friends back in the States — but we have big plans and high expectations. Expect our product lines to grow in the very near future.

Mudan Boutique welcomes your input about anything. We have a boutique blog, a newsletter and you can always reach us by email: info at mudanboutique.com. If you are a China-based designer or artist and you think your work would be a good fit for Mudan Boutique, please email me directly at dan at mudanboutique.com.

You might also like to know that Mudan Boutique contributes five percent of net proceeds from each purchase to CARE, a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty.

So there you have it, my new baby Mudan Boutique. Please have a look and tell me what you think. Perhaps it (and Shanghaiist, celebrating its one-year anniversary today) offer some excuse for why I have been so out of reach and this site has been so neglected for, oh, I don’t know, the past year or so.

I sure am busy for an unemployed guy.

Mudan Boutique’s online store was designed by the great team at Rockbeatspaper and the product photography was taken by Brad at Shanghai Streets.

Live near Atlanta? Got plans this weekend?

Why not head on out to a festival in a park? From the Mudan Boutique Blog:

This Weekend: Visit Mudan in Atlanta’s Inman Park!

For the second year in a row, Mudan Boutique has been selected to participate in Atlanta’s biggest street market, the Inman Park Spring Festival on Saturday, April 28 and Sunday, April 29. We will be showcasing a full array of Mudan pearl, jade, and handbag fashion accessories as well as several product lines not yet available on mudanboutique.com. (Looks like we are going to have some great weather, too.) The festival is from 11 am-6 pm both days and if you’re in the Atlanta area, please come by we’d love to meet some of our customers in person! Here are directions to Inman Park (Google Maps).

And mention you read about this in the blog and get 10% off any purchase.

See you soon!