Finally we arrived in Barcelona, the reason why we came to Europe. We were in town for the Bread and Butter trade show, the biggest show for the European fashion market. It was also Five Four's official European debut. We've all been real pumped about this for awhile now, and it finally happened. I personally really like the European market very much, it is super forward and open to more lifestyle brands such as Five Four.
Our flight landed in the evening from Paris on Tuesday. The taxi line was super long at the airport, luckily I saw a friend of mine, Mike T from Obey and he let me cut in the line. By the way, it was also about 100 degrees outside the airport.
We went to meet up with Dee at the hotel who just flew in from L.A. He brought in some last minute jean wash samples that were ridiculously hot, take a look. Spring 2007 Five Four jeans are blazing!
It was the semifinal game between Germany vs. Italy that same night. The B&B show is operated by a German company, so it was pandemonium. They played the game in the big courtyard for all the B&B people to watch. Unfortunately, they lost the game to Italy. It wasn't a good look. There were drunk Germans kicking the trash and yelling in anger. They were over it about 10 minutes later after another round of beers.
That night we hit up the marina area for some great dinner and bars. We ended back at the hotel at 7am, another damn night of partying, it has to stop at some point...but when in Euro, do as the Euros do.
The show officially started on Wednesday, what an amazing show. It's definitely a lot cooler than any U.S. shows, peep below.
The Five Four booth was in the denim hall next to all of the big brands such as G-Star, Fornarina, Guru, Pepe and other big Euro lifestyle brands...
The show was a HUGE success. Our European distributor, Bernard, did a great job at putting everything together. Major props to him, Dee and I were very impressed with everything. The Euros were going crazy over Five Four. We are going to be sold everywhere in Europe now, everywhere from London to Stockholm to St. Tropez to Mikanos...good look.
Our good friend, Mikey Lev, joined us for the trip. He is an international playboy for all of you that don't know, along with Brian Toll who also joined us. They definitely made the trip a lot of fun, thanks for coming you international clowns...
Some other Angelenos were in attendance...
Mike T from Obey representing
It was about 120 degrees in the Sport & Street Hall where Obey was...
Creative Recreation was out there too, the Spring 2007 looked super hot...props to Rich over there.
So the joke of Barcelona was the gypsys. We were warned by many about the gypsys in Barcelona. Basically they are a group of crooks that travel and steal for a living. Pretty low scene. It was gypsy mayhem in Barcelona. Unfortunately, they came to the Five Four booth and stole our distributors laptop. One of the dudes got caught and is getting deported back to Chile...I heart gypsys.
On another note, check out the Replay campaign across the show at the Arena Barcelona. It was really hot.
That night we went to some super Euro beach party. It was thrown by a clothing line out of Spain called Desigual. The party was 45 minutes away from Barcelona on some random beach. We all fell asleep on the bus on the way there, we woke up, we were on the beach. I didn't know if I was in Spain or Portugal at this point. It was definitely what I thought a Euro beach party would be like, bunch of techno, bonfires, and drunk Euros. It was a good time had by all...
In the Bread and Butter Bulletin, Five Four was featured under a section called "The Look"...shout out to DJ Jon Alagem, you made it bro! haha
The show wrapped up on Friday, next B&B show will be this week in Berlin. Unfortunately, I have to get back to L.A. by Saturday so I won't be able to attend the show. I'm very excited about Five Four's entry into the European market. It's crazy how far we've come.
Our last night in Barcelona, we started off the night with some seafood paella. What a damn good dinner. Then headed off to the Untitled party for a bit. Looked for a cab for 1 hour afterwards to head to the Criminal party. There are no cabs in this city. It's unbelievable. I had to flag down a cab that was off duty and bribe him to take us to this next party. So we finally got there, I felt like it was in some ecstasy rave in Ibiza...not a good look.
The night ended back in the plaza where we started, taking pics at 6am in la Plaza de Cristobal Colon. Here's Dee and I giving the salute.
On the way to the airport, I had to buy some FC Barcelona gear...
Next stop...Madrid