If you were in Barcelona last week, you couldn’t have missed the “fashion hype” in the air. It was all around: images in the Metro stations, commentary on the radio and the news, even photos in the daily “throw-away” journals.

From the 18th to the 20th of January, the Fira of Barcelona was invaded by the German Fashion Tradeshow, Bread & Butter (“BBB”), considered one of the most prestigious urban fashion fairs in Europe. Last July, BBB’s first appearance in the city, put Barcelona on the map as it provided a platform for 700 international fashion exhibitors and boasted at having over 42,000 professionals attend the fair. This year, however, organizers have upped the ante and counted on more than 750 international brands and have achieved approximately 50,000 visitors, among them renowned international buyers and store representatives, “coolhunters,” those who find the “latest of the latest,” PR people, and marketing representatives… no small feat.

In BBB’s mind, Barcelona, a clear decision in their marketing strategy, was chosen in order to create a “North-South Axis” thereby exploiting the European fashion market to its fullest potential. What professionals saw in the fair (since it wasn’t open to just anyone) is what people will wear on the streets next winter: the latest trends, fabrics, styles, and colors in clothing, shoes, and accessories. Marta Comella, Purchasing Director of Gonzalo Comella mentioned that “it was like a walk through New York’s SoHo” and other pleased representatives have noted that BBB has changed their lives, duplicated their sales and client base. But the tradeshow was not all about all fashion. It was much more than that: continuously surrounded by live music, break-dancing shows, in-line roller blading, skateboarding, and BMX demonstrations, architectural mini-expositions, select cuisine tasting, and even a charity and community component.

Even outside of the various halls, one felt an amazing “buzz.” But once inside, the energy only increased. I dare say, if you weren’t trendy, you just wouldn’t fit in. The public was bombarded by pounding techno music, a collection of amazing lights, interesting architecture designs, powerful graphic art, and huge video screens featuring famous movies cuts. You felt like anyplace but Barcelona. Instead of the typical spoken Catalan, professionals were doing business in German, French, English, or Italian and one couldn’t miss the dose of supermodel star power with the appearance of Esther Cañadas, who strutted the catwalk for the Italian firm “Guru.”

But BBB wasn’t the only big event happening last week. It coincided with the first edition of Passarel.la Barcelona (“PB”), which basically replaced the newly defunct Pasarela Gaudi, held at Palau Sant Jordi. This newly formed Passarel.la, headed by Josep Maria Donat responsible for the brand TCN, demonstrated that even with the short time organizers had to put together the catwalk together… “The show must go on.” A few months ago, the Generalitat pulled out over 7 million euros it had previous used to fund Gaudi, but did, however, contribute 1 million into making PB a reality. The Generalitat has since stated that it’s expected to cut that contribution to half for the next scheduled edition in July. Organizers, therefore, had to rely primarily on their own private resources but were fortunate to count on financial support from big-name sponsors such as Lancome, Freixenet, and Vodafone.

On the surface not much has changed. Many of the same standard names appeared; it opened as usual with a collection from Antonio Miro and featured classics such as Konrad Muhr, Joaquim Verdu, Armand Basi in addition to the newest generation of young fashion stars including Josep Abril, Mireya Ruiz, and La Casita de Wendy, but with one huge bang, the stellar appearance Custo Barcelona as the final catwalk in the Italian Pavilion.

Even after months of uncertainty in Barcelona’s fashion sector, a few crucial questions remain: What progress has been made with the Generalitat’s various projects designed to bring international fashion to Barcelona and promote Catalan fashion abroad? Where does that leave Circuit and ModaFAD? Will PB be able to continue with little governmental financial support or will it be taken over by the rumored Pasarela BBB?

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

For more information:

Bread & Butter www.breadandbutter.com

Passarel.la Barcelona www.pbbarcelona.com