They call him Mr Bread & Butter, but Karl Heinz Muller is one of the most powerful fashion figures in Germany and mastermind of the biggest urban and streetwear trade show in Europe
‘AUTHENTIC” IS A word that Karl Heinz Muller uses a lot and for a man who is an authority on denim and urban wear, it’s a criterion he applies to the brands that he chooses to sell in his award-winning shop 14oz in Berlin.
A cult destination so called because 14oz refers to the standard weight of a yard of denim, the shop which opened in 2008 is housed in the booming Mitte area of the city in a handsome four-storey neo-Renaissance building which also stocks other menswear, womenswear and accessories.
Inside on a brief tour, deputy manager Julia Vidovic shows me around the store, proudly pointing out Irish knitwear from Inis Meain. “We sell it very well,” she says, holding up a rust coloured tweed cardigan worn by Keira Knightly in a recent movie.
Presentation and displays are innovative and impressive; shoes racked floor-to-ceiling, jeans laid out on vintage stands and handsome changing rooms. An intriguing feature is an aquatic tank erected over the cash counter in which tiny spectral jellyfish tremble.
There’s a wide spectrum of jeans brands with prices starting at €130 for Nudie (from Sweden) up to €680 for premium Japanese 45rpm indigo jeans made in cotton from Zimbabwe in limited quantities on old-style shuttle looms.
A successful, 55-year-old independent retailer who has worked in the denim industry for 30 years, Muller opened his first 14oz store in Cologne in 1999 and went on to become Europe’s most influential show organiser.
His Bread & Butter trade event which started in a derelict factory in Cologne in 2001 with 50 brands now attracts some 700 exhibitors and an estimated 80,000 visitors to the vast grounds of Tempelhof, the historic disused airport in Berlin and the third largest building in the world.
According to Van Gleeson of Raidar and the G Star franchise in Dublin who has been attending for more than seven years: “Bread & Butter is vital for us; it is where we source most of our new brands.”
A trade show like no other, B&B is part fair, part rock concert, part art installation with a youthful personality and dynamism uniquely its own. “It is so visually stimulating and the scale is so impressive. You are into an atmosphere of what will be selling in a year’s time,” says another Irish buyer Amy Hamilton. The recent event in July was notable for the ingenuity of the exhibitor stands and the opening ceremony held in the Tiergarten featured romantic boat trips and live music followed by a spectacular midnight fashion show at the newly opened “Tempel of Denim”.
Amongst the hundreds of exhibitors, the only Irish brand taking part is Inis Meáin knitwear which traditionally shows at Pitti Uomo menswear trade show in Florence, but two years ago Tarlach de Blacam of Inis Meain decided to try Berlin as well. “We have increased business by 20 per cent since showing there,” he says. “Here we are meeting Germans, Scandinavians and even Estonian buyers. It is more forward fashion. A lot of exciting things are happening in menswear.”
Berlin’s effort is paying off and though attendance figures in July were down by 4 per cent on the previous season, the overall level of attendance is still very high. According to Muller: “You have to surprise people and do something special and you have to feel like a host. We like to take care of people,” he says after the July show when we meet in the garden behind his shop. A natural networker, this is where he hosts a popular designers’ lunch during the fair and this time he was particularly proud of having introduced two giants of the industry to each other, Diesel owner Renzo Rossi known as the “jeans genius” and Elio Fiorucci now 75 and founder of the eponymous streetwear brand.
“Fashion for me is a lifestyle – it’s your style, what you eat, what you wear, what kind of music or furniture you like and Bread & Butter has those elements,” he smiles.
A burly, bearded man with a genial, affable personality, he holds forth eloquently on how jeans and street fashion have changed in the past 20 years. “In the last five to six seasons, colourful chinos and colourful denim were popular, but now I believe that there is a new wave of blue denim – the market doesn’t want colour any more. You have a huge variety of jeans today and more and more people are looking for authentic jeans, jeans with a heritage and history. Today’s consumer is well informed because of the internet. Today the consumer is boss. That, in my opinion, is the big change in the industry.”
In October he will open another, bigger store in upmarket Kurfurstendamm “that will be more mature and classic” and he has already acquired vintage library fittings from Vienna and furniture from an old store in Paris once frequented by Coco Chanel. He also plans to produce his own yarn on a shuttle loom and is dispatching a weaver to Japan to learn the skills. “I like the sound of the loom and I would hope to produce 30 metres of denim a day. This will be a denim world.”
Dear to his heart is the foundation of LOCK – Labels Of Common Kin – a group of heritage signature brands and contemporary newcomers sharing a passion for craftsmanship, precision and quality, that authenticity which he so robustly champions. He includes Inis Meáin knitwear in this group. “I like authentic stuff which is why I was happy to meet Tarlach. I started buying Inis Meain three and a half years ago. Tarlach is a good ambassador for Ireland, the quality of his knitwear is fantastic and he is always working on more modern cuts and interpretations.”
Two years ago Muller visited the Aran Islands with his wife and young family for the first time. As for the future, he thinks issues of sustainability are becoming more important. “People are asking where things are from and the consumer is more informed about brands and I like that. It is not healthy to consume too much clothing and I would prefer customers to buy a really nice coat (like what I am wearing by Nigel Cabourn) instead of something new every season. I have nothing against Zara but I would prefer one picture instead of 10 copies and that is my philosophy and that of my store.”
As we finish, his wife and young children join us and show happy pictures of their visit and fishing trips on Inis Meáin. “I have a good life,” he smiles, “a nice family and fantastic employees. I don’t want to be a slick guy. I have to be proud of everything that I do. That’s my satisfaction.”
