Following a 30-hour drive from London to Barcelona towing our newly acquired E-Type Jaguar at a rally baiting 50mph, Gumball’s packed out Range Rover finally made it to the Bread & Butter fashion trade show in Spain’s sunny second city.
Gumball was in town to promote the Gumball 3000 Apparel 2009 Autumn/Winter collection and to launch Gumball boss Maximillion Cooper’s signature high-end fashion line.
In an effort to underscore its rally heritage, Gumball hosted on its stand a Ferrari F40 and a Mercedes McLaren SLR – generously loaned by Gumballer, Daniel Sospedra Lopez. Not to mention Gumballer Johny Staib's branded Porsche 997 that stood pride of place in the expo hall’s courtyard.
Over on the Maximillion Cooper stand, the weather-beaten E-Type received even more attention than the emaciated supermodels reluctantly propping up the stand opposite.
At one point the ageing Jaguar was pounced on by an equally mature cougar, whose prey, sorry, young male companion spent the best part of 20 minutes positioning her into a variety of semi erotic (some might say erratic) poses for an impromptu soft porn shoot.
With Bread & Butter regarded by those in the know as the highlight of the fashion buyers’ calendar, owing to its excess of excessive parties, the show’s organisers called on Gumball to host one of the event’s official parties and the Urban Superior Cup – a remote control car tournament competed in by 40 of the show’s top end brands.
Never one to do things by half, Gumball enlisted the help of half-a-dozen underdressed Fuel Girls to steward the races before giving a detailed demonstration in how to wash a car and shower at the same time dressed only in pants and a bra in near freezing conditions. Still, the subsequent fire breathing display should have warmed the poor mites up.
After being shut down by security, the Gumball party gatecrashed G-Star’s private bash where it severely dented the free bar and encouraged the assembled masses to conga across the tables. Once the bar was in danger of diminishing, Gumball commandeered a fleet of courtesy BMW X5’s to drop it at the front of the queue of Jade Jagger’s exclusive party.
With the door aggressively negotiated by Gumball enforcer Julie and the stage successfully invaded, Gumball set up camp for the night and made sure not one reveller left the party without a Gumball sticker slapped on their back.
Following three long days selling its wares and three nights in the bosom of Barcelona’s nightlife, Gumball tore down the stands, returned the supercars to their rightful owners and tied the Jag back on the borrowed farmer's trailer.
Hightailing it out of the city at 1am Gumball narrowly avoided the international news worthy hurricane, that blew away G-Star’s on-site big top tent. Again, an expected journey time of 16-hour was doubled, although a detour to Le Mans as a well-deserved treat for the E-Type made up for Gumball’s sleep-deprived endurance. Still, it was a good dry run for this May’s "Coast to Coast" Rally.
Click here for Bread & Butter gallery >>
Text: Andy Stone
Photos: Ricky Bowry
