It’s been a busy year already for New Guards Group. The Farfetch-owned platform recently acquired AMBUSH, adding it to a roster that includes Off-White™ and Heron Preston. The Italian holding company, founded in 2015, appears to keep this same momentum going throughout 2020; announcing that it had acquired all trademarks and intellectual property from Opening Ceremony.
Opening Ceremony was started in 2002 by Humberto Leon Carol Lim and has become a hub for all things fashion; opening stores in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo in the process. Although the news may come as a surprise, fans have no reason to be disheartened. Leon and Lim will still play a role in the store’s retail aspects and brand collaborations.
In a joint statement, Leon and Lim explained to the Business of Fashion that;
Our curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit have been at the center of Opening Ceremony since we founded the company and our continued search for innovation led us to this partnership with Davide de Giglio and Andrea Grilli, who have created one of the best global brand platforms in existence today…This next step for Opening Ceremony means we get to connect our desire to invent the future and design for our community to a dynamic infrastructure.”
New Guards Group has already revealed that it plans to manufacture Open Ceremony’s in-house label in Milan. There are already plans in place to bring an Open Ceremony store to Paris, a city that has yet to be discovered by Opening Ceremony. However, news broke just this morning that Opening Ceremony will be closing all of its retail stores in 2020; a shock for fans of the brand.
Whilst this may mark a big achievement for Opening Ceremony, fans of the brand will have to wait and see whether the new venture pays off.
