Karl-Heinz Müller: "We have to think fresh"

By

Bruno Joly

Published
Jan 20, 2015

Bread & Butter Back to the street is a compact show. Several brands (Campus, Freitag, King of Indigo...) chose Bread & Butter’s head office as a showroom either out of loyalty to Karl-Heinz Müller or perhaps because Premium or Panorama didn’t suit their needs. 

On Monday, January 19, Müller answered questions from FashionMag.com beginning with a terse "no, I have no plans." It's hard to believe him. What’s more, visitors were able to vote for the continuation of Bread & Butter, which is set to be held from July 2-4 (a Thursday to a Saturday).

"A trade show the size of Bread & Butter in Barcelona or in Berlin, with a selection of the offer and truly directed at professionals will no longer exist in this form," he said. 

He continues to have respect for Pitti, while suggesting that the event is more confined and much smaller in its surface area that the Tempelhof airport. "We have to think fresh. We have to rethink trade shows. Today, I am not one to make decisions," said the co-founder of Bread & Butter. In December, he took the plunge and declared his company insolvent. In early March, the opening of the insolvency proceedings will be official. At this point, his plans could be clearer.

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"There are those interested in the brand, others in the brand and the team. The aim of the bankruptcy proceedings is to save the company, if that makes sense, with legal obligations..." said Müller. 

He claims to have analyzed the market, knowing that he needed fashionable brands and to strengthen internationally, which Berlin doesn't truly offer (hence the aborted plan to return to Barcelona) while also involving consumers in one way or another (hence the aborted plan to open the show to the general public). 

But it didn’t work. Now, at Bread & Butter’s head office, visitors could vote either for the end to the adventure or to carry on. But how? "A virtual exhibition is not a solution. Internet is a tool made to complement and expand trade shows," said Müller. Certainly calm and collected, but still unsatisfied...