Opening Ceremony Shoes

Origin: 2002, New York, U.S.A.

Fields: womens-menswear, shoes

Founders: Carol Lim and Humberto Leon

Biography:

Carol Lim and Humberto Leon are co-founders of the fashion label Opening Ceremony. Leon and Lim are former luxury retail executives who met as students at the University of California, Berkeley in 1993. In 2002, they opened their store in Manhattan. Since, they have now outposts in LA and Tokyo. Nowadays, Opening Ceremony is a multifaceted environment comprised of retail spaces, showroom, and gallery that establishes a new international creative forum in downtown Manhattan. Taking their cue from the Olympics, the duo add designers from a new country each year to the rails of US talent. Like a high-fashion version of a cultural-exchange program, Opening Ceremony features fashions from a different country each year, with Brazil, Germany, France and the UK dominating recent racks. To accomplish this, Carolin and Humberto, both expats from the corporate fashion world, live a consumer’s dream: They go to a new country and stay for a while to hang out and get the vibe. Then, they shop. Before leaving, the duo typically buys two seasons’ worth of collections from about ten designers, making sure to pick one power player and the rest relative unknowns.

Style:

For their own collection, Opening Ceremony takes basic silhouettes and reinterprets them with interesting and unexpected details. In 2007, the concept was expanded to a cool collection of mens and womens footwear. They are also famous for their collaborations and capsule collections with amongst other Chloé Sevigny, Spike Jonze, Uniqlo, Timberlands, Keds, Levi’s, Pendelton… Based on simple silhouettes, the collection takes reference from mens oxfords, womens classic pumps, the simplicity and beauty of basic shoes to match any ensemble. Offering a range of really comfortable styles from ballet flats to open-toed boots for women, the collection is created in natural leather and suede in wearable colours. Some of the models are already cult like the Chunky lace-up clog-style boots.