Opening Ceremony's Announcement
The fashion industry has been struggling for a long time, specifically their retail stores. With online shopping getting more and more popular, and people finding it way easier to use, retail stores have started to close. The COVID-19 crisis and lockdowns have already forced most businesses and retail stores to close. However, this might not be a temporary thing. Several high end and well-known brands, like Neiman Marcus and Forever 21, have already closed locations, citing financial issues. Last week, Opening Ceremony, an American clothing brand founded by Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, announced it would be shutting all of its locations down permanently. Lim and Leon announced this development on their Instagram. "We were going to set up a karaoke machine and ask you to sing a song with us. Make you a drink and give you some snacks. We were going to work in the stores for our last month so that we could thank you and hang out the way we did in 2002 when we first opened,” they wrote. “But while that is not in the cards, the feelings of gratefulness and love are still there.”
In January, Opening Ceremony announced that it would be selling a majority of its stake to the New Guards Group. Later, they announced that they would be transitioning away from retail by closing locations. Lim and Leon stated that Opening Ceremony would now be focusing on in-house collections of ready-to-wear clothing and accessories. Opening Ceremony's online stores will continue to operate into June. Their official re-launch is scheduled for later this year. However, Opening Ceremony will continue to "tie fashion obsessions to culture at large," which has been their goal from the beginning.
Report: Anna Bechtel
At the rise of Covid-19 many of us first questioned the timeline of fashion week and would we see the regular calendar continue - the question weighed over many of us for months! It was refreshing to see design houses and designers across the globe take advantage of the uncertainty and plow into production mode - thus my interest in Jerri Reid New York - The Black Designer based in Brooklyn New York wow’d instagram with his latest collection paying homage to the Black Is King film which debuted earlier this year in July. I was taken aback at quick of a turn round the young designer produced and released his well crafted designs reflecting some of the films most memorable moments.