Off-White Behind The Scenes Buying Brand And Intellectual Property Of Buyer'S Shop

A few days ago, Italian company's New Guards Group, behind the tide brand Off-White of New York, announced the acquisition of trademarks and intellectual property rights of Opening Ceremony, a well-known fashion buyer's shop in New York.

New Guards Group pointed out that in the future, a showroom will be opened in Paris, while Opening Ceremony will be re established in the UK luxury electronic business platform Farfetch. In addition, the production of Opening Ceremony private brand will be transferred to Milan. Although the two sides have not disclosed the specific terms of the transaction, it has been reported that New Guards Group has planned to take over the production of its own clothing and accessories product line of Opening Ceremony.

After the end of the deal, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, CO founders of Opening Ceremony, will continue to participate in brand related matters in the capacity of Brand Co creative director, but the two focus of future work will be more on joint partnership and private brand development. So far, Opening Ceremony's own brand has contributed 25% of its sales to the company. According to the current plan, Opening Ceremony will speed up the promotion of its own brand in the future, aiming to further increase the sales volume.

In addition, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim will continue to own the retail business ownership of Opening Ceremony, that is, the right of operation of the four stores located in New York Howard Street, Ace Hotel, Losangeles La Hotel and Tokyo table road.

Humberto Leon, Carol Lim two said in a joint statement: "since the establishment of Opening Ceremony, our curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit have always been the core of the company. The constant exploration of innovation has led us to the present, and has entered into partnership with New Guards Group Davide de Giglio and Andrea Grilli, the two of which have built the best global brand platform in the world today. The new step taken by Opening Ceremony means that we must connect our aspirations with the creation of the future and design and create our community based on dynamic architecture. "

Opening Ceremony was born in New York in 2002. Humberto Leon has worked in the US fashion brand Gap and the British luxury brand Burberry before the start of business. Carol Lim is a purchasing planner in Switzerland luxury brand Bally. At first, Opening Ceremony was only a small store hidden in the center of New York. The venture capital came from two people's savings and a small commercial loan.

They expanded to Losangeles and Tokyo in 2007 and 2009 respectively, and then began to expand wholesale business in high-end department stores and luxury electric providers such as Neiman Marcus, Net-a-porter and Shopbop.com. In 2014, Opening Ceremony was invested in Berkshire Partners, a private equity fund in Boston. Details of the transaction have not yet been released.

In 2011, Carol Lim and Humberto Leon two, led by Pierre-Yves Roussel, President of LVMH Fashion Department of France luxury group, introduced the flagging designer brand Kenzo (KENZO) as creative director, which injected new vitality into the brand. In June 2019, the two announced their departure and focused on the business of Opening Ceremony.

Opening Ceremony's overall sales situation was not disclosed, but in early 2018, there was a rumor that the company planned to seek new investors to join. Then in June, the company announced a streamlined plan to dismiss 23 employees including 4 designers.