REVIEW THE SOURCE KICKOFF
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THE SOURCE, the new BREAD & BUTTER format for the fashion textile industry, celebrated a classy kick-off event parallel to BREAD & BUTTER BARCELONA. 4,983 professional visitors from 62 countries came to the launch event of this new platform, which took place in the halls 6 and 7 on the upper part of the Fira Barcelona grounds.
At the kick-off event, 56 exhibitors presented themselves. Denim and fabric weavers, knit and jersey producers, laundries, accessory producers, CMT partners and other production-related manufacturers showcased their products in creative and individually designed stands to a carefully selected, invited visitor group: the designers, production- and sourcing teams of the B&B exhibitors and international fashion labels visited THE SOURCE.
The exhibitor portfolio was on a very high level. Top exhibitors such as ITV Denim, Royo, Martelli, Limonta, Rad Rags, Okinawa, Swarovski, Akin Tekstil, Delago, Lyria, Lanificio Paoletti, Cerruti, Tessilgraf, Marioboselli, Union Knopf, Tonello, The Cube by Ultra, Duemilagori and many more used the premiere of "THE SOURCE". They were rewarded with a remarkably high internationality rate of the visitors.
Karl-Heinz Müller: "The kick-off of THE SOURCE was promising. For the future, we see good potential for development."
| Country | Visitors in numbers | Visitors in % |
| Italy | 1,332 | 26.73 % |
| Spain | 1,251 | 25.11 % |
| Germany | 522 | 10.48 % |
| Turkey | 274 | 5.50 % |
| France | 235 | 4.72 % |
| Austria | 192 | 3.85 % |
| Great Britain | 182 | 3.65 % |
| Netherlands | 143 | 2.87 % |
| Portugal | 100 | 2.01 % |
| Brazil | 81 | 1.63 % |
| Greece | 69 | 1.38 % |
| USA | 62 | 1.24 % |
| Switzerland | 61 | 1.22 % |
| Belgium | 53 | 1.06 % |
| Japan | 45 | 0.90 % |
| Poland | 38 | 0.76 % |
| Tunisia | 36 | 0.72 % |
| Morocco | 25 | 0.50 % |
| Russia | 24 | 0.48 % |
| Mexico | 22 | 0.44 % |
| Israel | 21 | 0.42 % |
| Colombia | 15 | 0.30 % |
| Denmark | 14 | 0.28 % |
HIGHLIGHTS THE SOURCE
Highlight was the Designer Talkshow on the second day of the event: an invited audience of fashion professionals and the trade press witnessed the presenters Ray Cokes and Prof.Dr. Jo Groebel talking live to the jeans legends Adriano Goldschmied, François Girbaud, Elio Fiorucci and Luigi Martelli. The famous denim gurus, who have known and esteemed each other for decades already, fascinated the audience with their inspiring and visionary insights into the world of denim and their rich personal experiences.
Apart from that, the talk show was also the launch event of the "I Love Finishing" book by Martelli Lavorazioni Tessili. The book is a unique contribution about the history of the development of denim finishing. Luigi Martelli personally signed his book for some of the guests.
The artistically staged exhibition of the "Martelli Vintage Collection" also drew a lot of attention: in the Denim hall of THE SOURCE, Martelli presented an exclusive selection of their collection of precious vintage pieces, partly over 100 years old. The unique collection is the result of an intensive, decade-long, worldwide search.
Another highlight of THE SOURCE was the B&B Design Exhibition. In hall 7, the graduates of the "Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts" presented their innovative and experimental graduation pieces. The exhibition was staged with exceptional light design, and showed the originality and creativity of the young artists.
The famous Belgian designer and creative director of the Antwerp academy, Walter Van Beirendonck, led the project and was personally present.
Also at THE SOURCE, traditional B&B partner WGSN presented their popular fabric and denim trend seminars. WGSN Senior Denim Editor Sue Barrett showed fabric trends A/W 2009 and colour trends S/S 2010 to an enthused audience.
The particular concept of the BREAD & BUTTER as a creative marketing and communication platform also applies to THE SOURCE. Just like BREAD & BUTTER in its beginning revolutionized the world of fashion tradeshows, THE SOURCE now offers to the textile industry a new, individual presentation platform - the world's first vertical platform has been created.
Karl-Heinz Müller: "Reactions to this new concept and to the early date were positive throughout. Together with our exhibitors, we will further develop, profile and complete this vision.
As has repeatedly been said, we want to create a platform for communication and marketing. A conventional "sample fair" cannot be our aim.
In the course of the next weeks, we will speak to our exhibitors about the possibility of opening THE SOURCE to a broader visitor group. Additionally to the direct target group consisting of designers, sourcing- and production teams of the fashion labels, also fashion retailers and buyers could get the possibility to visit THE SOURCE. In my opinion, it is imperative for the textile retail to get to know more about fabrics, manufacturing, finishing and qualities. The challenge for the more significant retail is to provide the informed end consumer, who is interested in sustainability, with a better, more innovative product. Logically, this has its price. Everyone can do cheap.
We will definitely stick to the consequent selection of our exhibitors. We are only interested in creative developers and high-quality producers. They mainly come from Europe, Maghreb and Japan."
The next edition of THE SOURCE will take place from 21. - 23. January 2009, parallel to BREAD & BUTTER BARCELONA.