I recently returned from Cologne, Germany were I attended the International Trade Fair for Creative Handicraft Hobby Supplies (now you try to say that in one breath) for short the h h show. Our company Button Fashion/Blumenthal Lansing exhibited in additon to 260 exhibitors from 25 nations presented their selection of products related to sewing, knitting, crochet and handicrafts at this event.
There were workshops, exhibitions, fashion shows to reveal the latest trends and creations. So follow along as I post several photos from my trip/show.
So at this point I’ve traveled over 13 hours with transfers, delays…so at this point I’m overtired and ready to hit the streets of Koln!
I was greeted at the airport by my fellow collegue – Kevin Noordmans (many of you may remember Kevin from our previous CHA shows – tall, great accent!) Kevin is our Global Sales Manager in The Netherlands. So off we went “touists”…
Above is the Cathedral Dom (and Kevin)…
There were no words to describe this Cathedral…It was beautiful. If you get a chance make sure to visit you won’t be disappointed!
I know, I know enough with the Cathedral – was there anything else? Well yes indeed there was…
Can you say TRUFFLES – OMG! every flavor imaginable! I could have stayed in this shop all day! And that my friends was worth the trip! Well needless to say tomorrow we’re off to the convention center to set-up our booth and work off some calories!
So the day begins and Kevin must have stored some “expresso truffles” he was so ready to go! I was still on Jersey time!
We transformed our booth from this to THIS!
The booth was transformed to reflect store windows (as we did at CHA). We presented our NEW product Crafters Cafe, Fashion Buttons by La Mode, Colors by Favorite Findings, and many additional products which were welcomed by all that visited.
We also featured a MTK which Diny Sprakel (below) created and presented – amazing woman. She’s done many shows for Button Fashion and people here love her! The MTK was a Vintage Ribbon Broach!
Many attended her MTK and created some beautiful pins!
Now for the rest of the show…
This show was situated on two convention floors – from yarns, home textiles, tapestry, sewing, knitting machine, haberdashery and craft kids…
Great displays which featured our Fabric Sensation Buttons was featured in the Veno Store.
Beautiful sweaters were created from soft colored yarns!
Great displays!
Creative & whimsical!
Check out their hair – they happen to represent Lily Chin which carry knitting needles!
The yarns already have the beads in the fiber!
Tie dye fibers!
Museum like!
Who needs accessories!?
I was overwhelmed with the amounts of fibers that were featured – but mostly by the beautiful garments that were created and embellished with BUTTONS/CLOSURES…
So I hope you enjoyed viewing my photos but lastsly I would like to thank Ted Finklestein of Gutermann who invited us to lunch in their booth – we were served bratwurst with german potato salad and an array of desserts! YUM!
HAPPY CRAFTING!
We are a team of craft-obsessed, button loving people! You probably use buttons almost every day without giving it much thought – they keep our shirts closed and our pants up (hopefully!) - but buttons can be so much more! We created this blog to share all the fun, creative ways we’ve found to use buttons. Our product development team is always coming up with great new button shapes and colors, in addition to new products, so we will always have something new to share with you!