Opening Ceremony to close retail locations in 2020

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Jan 15, 2020

Just a day after being acquired by the Farfetch-owned New Guards Group, Opening Ceremony has announced that it will be closing its retail locations within the year. 

Opening Ceremony currently operates two stores in New York, one in Los Angeles and one in Tokyo.

The news broke via a personal letter from the company’s founders, Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, who reflected on the company’s growth since it began with its premiere Opening Ceremony store location, at 35 Howard Street, which the pair opened in September 2002. 

“Opening Ceremony has expanded and evolved in countless ways since those first years in business,” the founders said.

“We’ve grown our own collection, starting from the platform of our first store, into a global Opening Ceremony band for which we’ve held some of the most ambitious experiential fashion shows imaginable. At the same time, Opening Ceremony stores have been home to remarkable staff, customers and creative people where the wildest experiments in retail took place…this is why its incredibly emotional for us to announce today that we will be closing our Opening Ceremony retail locations sometime in 2020.” 

According to the founders, the change comes as part of Opening Ceremony’s new partnership with NGG. 

“We’ve made a decision to focus on growing [the] Opening Ceremony collection and brand with our new partners, New Guards Group, and expand the designs of Opening Ceremony…we still believe in the power of passionate and unique retail. But we also believe in the necessity for change, reflection and an opportunity to refresh. This is a moment of transition for Opening Ceremony and, together with our new partners, we are taking the chance to step back and evaluate the future of our Opening Ceremony retail experience.” 

Under the new partnership with NGG, the Italian group now owns Opening Ceremony‘s trademark and intellectual property and will control the production and distribution of Opening Ceremony’s in-house line of clothing and accessories, starting with the FW20 season.