Opening Ceremony: "The main thing - to do everything from the heart"

Opening Ceremony is a brand and store with a ten-year history. This month, its creators Carol Lim and Humberto Leon first showed their collection at New York Fashion Week, released a joint collection with adidas Originals, and just yesterday they started to rain on the show of another brand they run - Kenzo. Wonderzine asked Umberto Leon how to produce 8 collections a year, why work with a sports brand and how the retail has changed since the founding of Opening Ceremony.

The names Carol Lim and Umberto Leon are known only to people who are seriously engaged in fashion, although the duet has a great influence on the industry: for example, it has become part of the list of 500 professionals who shape global fashion, according to the publication Business of Fashion. Carol worked as a management consultant, and Umberto led the Gap design department, but 10 years ago the guys opened Opening Ceremony store (the name was inspired by the Olympics). The store quickly earned a reputation as a forerunner: he first began selling brands like Acne and Topshop (OC took them outside of their native Sweden and Britain) and since then every season has opened dozens of brands that everyone will soon be chasing. Then Lim and Leon created a clothing and accessories line of the same name, which at first was their way to produce a quality base for the wardrobe, and later became a platform for cooperation with various brands, from Keds and Pendleton to DKNY. Since 2011, sales gurus are also creative directors of Kenzo - thanks to them the generation of social networks drew attention to the brand, which has erected into the cult of sweatshirts, caps and slippers with tigers. This fall, a new joint collection, Opening Ceremony and adidas Originals, has appeared in stores, which has costumes with prints, a jacket with a basky Climacool water-repellent and wind-proof material and boots that look like climbing shoes.

Opening Ceremony has almost a hundred collaborations, and they are as important as the main collections. You have been working with adidas Originals, MM6, Rodarte for several seasons in a row.

We do not like to call this process a collaboration, the appropriate word here is partnership. When we work with someone, we try to preserve the individuality, which is quite easy if it works naturally and organically and the story we tell comes from a pure heart. For Carol and I, it is important that a close relationship is established between us and the other side and that we have an equal dialogue. Then the joint collection will be successful. We trust our inner feelings: if we experience excitement and excitement, it means that everything is fine.

Judging by the views on the collections, everything runs smoothly, and even the celebrities with whom you worked are not naughty.

Yes, everything goes easy, because we work only with those who mean a lot to us and whom we respect. It works especially well with friends, and we are friends with most people and brands who have done joint projects with us. Perhaps always the most fun with Chloe Sevigny. Working with her or with Yoko Ono is a dream that has come true. To penetrate into their unusual world and turn the impression of this world into clothing is a great experience.

What about a partnership with adidas Originals, a streetwear brand with a rich sporting heritage?

For us with Carol, sportswear does not stand alone, it is an integral part of our everyday wardrobe.

Probably, This is the case when you could use new technologies as you like?

Indeed, one of the most interesting things about working with adidas Originals is that we got a chance to look at technology from completely different angles: through fabrics and even silhouettes. We were given the opportunity to go to the factories and look in the adidas Originals archives, and you can’t even imagine how interesting it is. We saw a story that is relevant to our time. The clothes that we got as a result can be worn by both ordinary sports fans and professionals. And by the way, they will look cool in it.

Winter Olympics will begin soon. What would your form look like for the Games? By the way, the title will be excellent: "Opening Ceremony for Opening Ceremony".

We would do something spectacular. Let's live to 2016!

in addition to collaborations, you manage two brands and do not hit commerce. How do you manage to combine business and creativity?

These aspects of the work go hand in hand; there is no separation. Our success depends in part on the knowledge of both components of the fashion industry. Fashion is a place for self-expression and creativity, it is a place for those people who have a voice. You just need to know how to sing.

Ok, but you create more than eight collections a year. How do you cope and where do you get ideas for each?

Just two of us - this is the key. But seriously, we are super-organized. In the collection, it is important for us to tell a story that is based on reliable facts. From there and take.

You do more and shop. Stamp selection in Opening Ceremony has always been advanced. You were one of the first to start selling Acne, now you are offering beginners Jacquemus and Kara, who will show everyone. Plus, you have a blog about a store that all competitors want to be at. What is most important for you in retail?

We are constantly updating Opening Ceremony, this is the basis for us. We ourselves challenge ourselves, it is important for us to carry out our tasks and always move forward. Not so long ago, we decided to devote every year to the designers of a particular country, so we can assume that the magic button "update store assortment" automatically clicks. In general, now retail is becoming more individual. The store should clearly explain to people why they need to buy from him. Compared to 2002, when we entered the business, everything changed a lot. It's like day and night.