Inside the 2010s Berlin festival that merged fashion, music & youth culture

There was a particular kind of magic to being young and creative in the 2010s. Fashion, music, film, and nascent digital subcultures were constantly referencing each other, creating a culture that felt more dynamic, inclusive and fun. Unlike in decades past, people weren’t defined by their creative backgrounds, as DJs and rappers took on roles as creative directors, models collaborated with luxury brands to create limited-edition drops, and underground club nights became the blueprint for fashion collections. The possibilities were endless, and the world was your oyster. For three summers in Berlin, Bread&&Butter by Zalando embraced this cultural collision, creating an event that was part fashion trade show, part music festival, lots of fun parties, and an excuse to see what the coolest people in the city were wearing. 

With over 30,000 people attending both the 2017 and 2018 editions, each weekend featured runway shows, limited-edition drops, after-parties hosted by Indie, street food stalls, DJ sets and artists who seemed to have been pulled directly from the internet’s coolest corners. Here we look back at the festival and its significance in the city’s fashion and youth culture landscape.

Despite being adopted from a former trade show, one of the festival’s most exciting ideas upon its inception in 2016 was that the event was not reserved for editors, buyers, fashion insiders or people with a certain follower count: everyone was invited. Fashion shows were followed by live acts, DJs, parties, workshops and panels, opening up the fashion world to a much broader audience. The range of events and people who walked through the doors reflected how the old divisions between fashion, music, art and nightlife in Berlin were becoming increasingly porous.

Music was always at the heart of the Bread&&Butter festival. In 2017, M.I.A closed out Friday night’s festivities, while FKA twigs and the Austrian band Bilderbuch headlined over the weekend. Elsewhere, the late designer Virgil Abloh took to the decks and RIN brought Berlin’s rap scene to the event. Traversing genre and geographies, rappers and DJs appeared alongside pop acts while the Bold Ball hosted by the magazine Indie paid homage to the queer history of ballroom culture and boasted DJ sets by Berlin’s Lucy Liu Ninja and Byrell The Great. 

By 2018, the line-up had become even more exciting as Princess Nokia, Stefflon Don, and Gunna were among several artists who performed across the weekend. Adding to the live acts, after-parties thrown by different publications and collectives brought club and underground culture into the mix. The thoughtful integration of music into the event, showed how symbiotic the relationship between music, fashion, streetwear and wider culture had become. 

Bread&&Butter arrived at an interesting moment for the fashion industry. In the 2010s, the old guard was being critiqued for its notorious exclusivity, and the fashion-week model was beginning to feel increasingly disconnected from the way young people actually discovered and consumed clothes. 

In 2017, Viktor&Rolf brought haute couture to the Arena Berlin, while brands including Topman, G-Star RAW, Converse and Levi’s unveiled new collections and exclusive products. You could buy and customise a pair of Nikes on the spot, roller skate at Wrangler’s disco and see a Vivienne Westwood exhibit under one tent. 

By its third edition in 2018, Bread&&Butter had grown considerably. More than 40 brands filled the Arena Berlin, with over 100 product drops and limited editions, while six pop-up fashion performances, nine panel talks and a packed programme of music and street food stalls ran alongside them. At the time, it provided a glimpse of youth culture in 2019 and where it was headed, perhaps most directly through their panel titled, “what’s next?”, where influencer Jazzelle Zanaughtti, Kodie Shane, the now-disbanded fashion show PAQ’s star Elias Riadi, and 032c’s Fashion Director Marc Goehring discussed social media and how it will impact fashion and music.

As Zalando gears up for a new era of celebrating the intersection of fashion, music and youth culture, Bread&&Butter’s legacy acts as a reminder of what can happen when different people with similar interests come together in one place. 

Head to the gallery above to check out more imagery from Bread&&Butter over the years.