Will Bread & Butter become a consumer fair?

By

Bruno Joly

Published
Dec 4, 2013

Bread & Butter is getting ready to open a new chapter in its history come July 2014. In a three-page letter from the show's iconic founder Karl-Heinz Müller, (who holds the secret about the fair’s future), he describes the situation in the fashion market, the trade exhibition war in Berlin and the growing importance of e-commerce.

The trade fair boss recalls the history of the event, created in Cologne in 2001, ensures his readers that the show will remain in Berlin (his lease at the Tempelhof airport has an initial term of ten years) and lays out his case in blunt detail. Mentioning Igedo and its arrival in Berlin along with The Gallery, he said that it is now easy to rent a hall anywhere in the city and create a new exhibition — the term used in quotes, of course.

As for Panorama, which he does not mention by name, he talks about an organizer nourished on public subsidies who has entered into the arena of trade fairs. "In Berlin, a ruinous competition has begun. We all know what it means if the supply overtakes the demand," he said.

Regarding the fashion market, he also invoked the importance of the chains, a completely different situation than ten years ago and when Bread & Butter was launched, and also the strong role of e-commerce, which has transformed the multibrand store into a "try on boudoir." "The fact is that only the traditional retailer is able to launch a brand or a label on the market," he said, who himself runs the highly acclaimed 14 OZ concept store in Berlin.

Yes — but what is the future for a professional fashion fair? "We have decided to include the most important market participants at the end of the chain, namely the end consumer," he writes. "We fully know that it will not be an easy task. We expect strong opposition, the same we faced when we left Cologne for Berlin," said Karl-Heinz Müller, who invited several journalists to Berlin in mid-December.

The only certainty is that the change is not for now but for the July 2014 edition.