Opening Ceremony, which opened in 2002, tapped into a subculture of hipsters with money who wanted to drop dough on designer duds but not look like they were donning precious, fussy wares like Oscar de la Renta or Carolina Herrera. In doing so, Carole Kim and Humberto Leon discovered a market that now serves as a seemingly endless resource of purveyors of the next-big-thing.
Opening Ceremony hasn't let them down, either, seeing as they've since opened an LA outpost, a Tokyo location and a second New York space at the uber-trendy Ace Hoteland now release their own eponymous label plus a cavalcade of collaborations in constant rotation. They've practically reinvented what it means to be a retail store by always staying one step ahead of fickle consumers' expectations. It's hard to say who they'll carry from season to season, as -- in addition to perennially hip mainstays like Proenza Schouler, Band of Outsiders and Rodarte -- they tend to focus on a revolving roster of smaller labels, and oftentimes launching them into the spotlight. Visit OpeningCeremony.us for more info.
