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Berlin fashion fairs succeed despite Bread & Butter’s absence

By Jan Schroder

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Fairs|REVIEW

Quite a few doubts had lingered over Berlin ahead of this season’s fashion week, which came to no surprise as the city had lost its most famous trade fair. Bread & Butter, formerly the biggest global showcase for denim and casualwear, had been cancelled in December, with the company behind it entering administration shortly afterwards.

So, for the first time since 2009, Berlin had to make do without one of its major attractions for international buyers – even though Bread & Butter had reached its peak a couple of seasons ago when some of its largest exhibitors left. Some big brands from Southern Europe ran into trouble following the worldwide financial crisis, others decided to focus on expanding their own retail network, eliminating the need for an expensive trade fair presence. The organisers also played a role in the fair’s downfall, announcing and taking back new plans and projects in quick succession. In the end, the demise of Bread & Butter did not come as a surprise.

But even during its decline, the trade fair still managed to attract tens of thousands of international visitors. Although Bread & Butter had been a competitor for the other Berlin trade fairs, they had also profited from the mass of foreign buyers it brought to the city during fashion week. The question was how they would cope with its absence?

Major trade fairs Premium and Panorama expanded and recorded strong visitor numbers

The answer was encouraging – for the individual events as well as for Berlin as a fashion fair location. All major fairs expanded their capacity and registered growing visitor numbers last week. Premium, relying on its tried and tested mix of carefully selected popular brands and avant-garde designer labels, added two new areas. A new hall was built for the segment “New Luxury & Pre-Collections“, where some of the most renowned local labels such as Lala Berlin, Dawid Tomaszewski or Vladimir Karaleev mixed with ambitious international designer brands. Moreover, Premium expanded to neighbouring “Kühlhaus”, a charming industrial space that had been the home of sister fair Seek for a few years. As part of Premium, it housed a selection of “trendy” high street brands such as Modström, Twist & Tango and Custo Barcelona. All in all, Premium featured about 1.000 exhibitors and 1.800 collections. Buyers responded enthusiastically – visitor numbers exceeded expectations, especially during the first two days.

Two of the other established trade fairs also reached new heights, too. The organisers of Show & Order were happy about hosting their “best edition ever”, and Panorama, the platform for mid-market high-volume brands, counted more than 50.000 industry visitors from 96 nations – which meant a twenty percent increase. The fair had added new spaces as they managed to attract some of the more commercial brands that used to show at Bread & Butter. “Besides buyers from the German-speaking markets of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, there was a significant increase in international visitors, above all from the Benelux region, Scandinavia, England and Ireland as well as from Poland and the Czech Republic”, said the organisers in a statement.

Even though some of the exhibitors met fewer international visitors compared to Bread & Butter, the overall feedback was extremely positive – especially on the first two days, when the halls were crammed with buyers. “Measured from the standpoint of the significantly expanded portfolio of international women’s and men’s collections, higher visitor rates as well as positive feedback from both visitors and exhibitors, Panorama Berlin Fall/Winter 2015/2016 was a complete success and as such provides an excellent foundation upon which to further expand in the coming Spring/Summer 2016 season,” said Panorama’s CEO Jörg Wichmann in a statement.

The expanded Seek was the success story of the season as Berlin finally got a strong menswear fair

As the two leading fairs Premium and Panorama grew following their established concepts, a third event was a surprise success: Seek made a quantum leap and earned unanimous praise from exhibitors and buyers. The fair, founded in 2009 and still owned by the company behind Premium, had already established a reputation for its charming atmosphere and great selection of denim, heritage brands and premium sportswear – with a strong focus on menswear and Scandinavian labels. But confined to the cosy, but small “Kühlhaus”, its former location, the platform had always appeared to be a highly ambitious extension of its neighbouring big sister Premium.

This season, Seek moved to a new, independent location – the huge exhibition centre “Arena” in the trendy Treptow district, a former bus maintenance hall built in 1927, tripling its space and doubling its exhibitor number to almost 250 brands. The move to the bigger, but comparably remote location far away from Premium was certainly risky, but all doubts turned out to be unfounded. Seek managed to adapt to the new surroundings, keeping its industrial charm but extending its range. Besides the long-term exhibitors, Seek added bigger brands that used to show at Bread & Butter – Ben Sherman, for example – as well as ambitious avant-garde menswear labels to its traditional portfolio. Among the new participants were Swiss prodigy Julian Zigerli, internationally renowned designer brand Silent by Damir Doma and sophisticated local designer Sissi Goetze. With its expanded offering, Seek filled a void in Berlin’s trade fair landscape: For the first time, the city now has a comprehensive, independent showcase for progressive menswear covering brands ranging from traditional denim craftsmanship to high-concept design.

Despite going into administration last December, Bread & Butter may return next season

All in all, the Berlin trade fairs offered a convincingly structured portfolio this season with Premium focussing on high-end womenswear, Panorama showing high-volume, mid-market brands, and Seek as a new pre-eminent menswear platform. But come July, the situation may change fundamentally once more. Karl-Heinz Müller, the CEO of Bread & Butter, who organised a small 'guerrilla' styled trade event called “Back to the Street,” featuring some of his longstanding exhibitors this season, already announced his plan to return with a full-scale Bread & Butter next summer. Investors were already at hand to provide the necessary financial support, administrator Christian Graf Brockdorff said in a statement. Moreover, the people behind Burg & Schild, one of the city’s best menswear stores, introduced their concept for a new fair called Selvedge Run, a platform for thirty to forty high-quality heritage brands. Despite the tremendous success of its latest edition, Berlin fashion week’s set-up still appears to be far from settled.

Written by Jan Schröder, FashionUnited's local correspondent in Berlin

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