Bread & Butter show report

Checks were one popular trend to emerge

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The most inspiring efforts at Bread and Butter Barcelona came more from visiting buyers than exhibitors.

Among those that made the short journey from the UK to sun drenched Catalonia capital the reaction to the heavily publicised reports of doom and gloom ranged from bullish to reflective.

One prominent independent who generally subscribes to the overly cautious camp struggled to find anything to complain about "Christmas was fantastic and we have managed to clear what stock we had left with minimal discounting.

"Everyone is saying things are going to get worse but we are yet to see any signs of that happening. If it does, we'll just have to trade our way through it we're shop keepers and we still need to fill our shops with product and that is why we're here."

The wet look was another strong trend to emerge

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While Bread and Butter served up little in the way of fresh trends, dominant themes from lumberjack checks to wet look quilted jackets were accompanied by a flurry of micro trends and design details. 

Purple – the big colour story at Pitti Uomo – was everywhere at Bread & Butter. From colourful denims to sweatshirts and knits, vibrant grape and blackcurrant shades provided vivid bolts of juicy colour in a season which looks set to be dominated by sombre tones from black to washed out military olives.

Among the show's countless international visitors those lithe enough to carry the look were still backing skinny jeans but in the Denim hall it was a different story. Autumn 08 is a season underlined but commercial sensibility and this was exemplified succinctly by rail upon rail of 501-inspired straight leg shapes.

For a full summary of Bread & Butter see this week's Drapers (January 26, 2007) or keep up to date online with the new Trends section of the site.