So to Barcelona for the, um, eighth time last week (yes my carbon footprint concerns me). I should know the city way better than I do, but when you’re at a trade show you could be in any city in the world. It goes something like this: fly for 2 hours to X airport, taxi to hotel, go to sleep, wake up, taxi/underground to trade show, walk around massive exhibition centre all day looking at clothes/shoes/accessories and talking to people until you physically can’t form another word with your mouth, leave tradeshow, have dinner somewhere random, go to party/parties put on by the brands with the most cash to splash, get incredibly drunk on free booze, taxi to hotel, pass out. Repeat stages 1 to 10 for X amount of days until you’re a gibbering wreck, then fly home with your brain trying to crawl out of your skull and your “hand-luggage only” bursting with lookbooks, mags and business cards. Job done.
For those who don’t know, Bread and Butter is a streetwear tradeshow held every six months to showcase the next season’s collections. This time is was for winter 2009. With most companies tightening their belts there were notable absences from the big guns like Vans, Insight and Alpine Stars, which was a shame, but there was still tons to see.
It was great to see the Nikita collection and finished lookbook that we were on the shoot for in Berlin. I’m digging all the super bright colours, especially on the jeans, and they’ve done geometric graphics like only they can.
RVCA totally floats my boat, and their AW09 collection doesn’t disappoint. They’ve done a bright yellow rain coat, like you used to have when you were three. Also, model and surfer Erin Wasson has designed a high-end range for them, including a tux waistcoat, cute floral jumpsuit and floaty chiffon blouse, so look out for that.
Roxy Heart, a new high-end collection from Roxy that launches this spring/summer, was showing. Their second collection – autumn/winter 09 – has been designed by Zakee Sheriff, and it’s the bomb. To give you an idea of how cool it is, it’s going to be stocked at No One on Kingsland Rd.
Hello Kitty seems to be making another comeback. I saw her on a number of booths. New Era has done a collab (if you can call it that as she’s a fictional character).
