Opening day of Bread and Butter Berlin, January, 2011. Photos courtesy of Bread and Butter.
Berlin Fashion Week launched the season in high style with loads of energy, but especially with the corresponding timing of Bread & Butter Trade Show.
While many in fashion ready themselves for couture season up next in Paris, we’ve got the final word from Bread & Butter on how their show performed January 19-21.
Overall, the theme Absolute was on target as it proved to be the absolute tradeshow for selected brands in street and urbanwear A/W 2011 collections as witnessed by the quality of exhibitors and the record number of visitors from more countries attending than ever before.
As Karl-Heinz Muller, President of Bread & Butter, reported, “There was no sign of any financial crisis here.”
For three days and three nights, Berlin-Tempelhof Airport became an international meeting point for business, communication and inspiration. M?ller said, “My belief has been confirmed once more: the return to Berlin was an absolutely spot-on decision. Berlin is the place to be and has increased its profile and established itself internationally as ‘the capital of Street- and Urbanwear’.”
G-Star’s Private Viewing.
Highlights included the B&B Grand Opening Party at the Absolute Cotton Club with 3,500 guests taking on the Golden Twenties styles, impressive Burlesque performances as well as a live concert by swing band “Cherry Poppin’ Daddies.” There was also a boxing ring, where a number of fights took place, featuring Rico M?ller from Germany, who won the IBO Welterweight World Championship against Nestor Faccio from Uruguay.
Other hits were of course G-Star’s latest installations, this time featuring a private viewing in a new fashion show concept to showcase its collection to a professional audience in an intimate, private setting.
The L.O.C.K. area in Hangar 7 offered a strong, well-balanced and high quality portfolio of heritage brands, and was able to register high numbers of visitor traffic throughout the whole event, as well as receiving excellent feedback. Its strength was reinforced by presentations from Nigel Cabourn, who showed his global Master Collection for the first time in one of the spacious showrooms, and Woolrich, who reflected upon their 180 years of company history with a photo exhibition by Douglas Kirkland.
The denim industry’s renowned top designers and a small circle of invited guests met on the first day of the event for the traditional lunch at the B&B Business Club.
According to Bread & Butter, they received more than 90,000 registrations from professional visitors, and the corresponding number of tickets was sent out to over 100 countries. During the three days of the event, a large number of additional new registrations were reported.
Karl-Heinz M?ller: “We knew that the event would be very strong and international. The exhibitors are more than satisfied with their results, and are reporting a considerable increase in the number of international new customers and numerous order placements. Overall, nearly two thirds of our visitors came from abroad.”
Bread and Butter chart of visitor numbers.
Overall, Bread &Butter experienced a growth in visitor numbers. The increase was mainly due to the heightened international flair of the event. Higher numbers of German visitors were once again recorded. Noticeable was the distinctive rise in visitor numbers from Benelux Russia and the Eastern European countries as well as from Great Britain. There were also numerous visitors from Switzerland and Austria this time around. The figures were more or less on the same level as the previous year. The number of Scandinavian visitors was particularly strong with an increase of over 50%.
10 Year Anniversary for Bread and Butter–July 2011
Karl-Heinz M?ller is already looking towards the next event: ” In summer 2011 we are celebrating our tenth
anniversary so we will of course be setting the bar even higher!”
Traditionally the BREAD & BUTTER opening takes place the evening before the first day of the trade show so for those attending it’s wise to show up in Berlin on 5 July 2011. The show runs from July 6-8 2011.
Bread and Butter is also launching their Youngstars show July 15-17 right after Bread and Butter proper. This show will be a must for those interested in fashionable street and urban kidswear.
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