Opening Ceremony, with stores in New York, Los Angeles, London and Tokyo, will expand with more retail stores and an enhanced e-commerce business. Funding for the expansion will come from a recent investment from Boston-based private equity company, Berkshire Partners.
Opening Ceremony, which has earned a cult following by showcasing little-known brands from around the world as well as more recognized names such as Rodarte and Alexander Wang, will use the funding to further develop its own men’s and women’s ready-to-wear lines as well as its own line of accessories. The company was launched in Lower Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood in 2002 by co-owners Humberto Leon and Carol Lim. Leon and Lim have created a board and named Berkshire Partners’ Glen Senk its non-executive chairman. Senk is best known for building Anthropologie, where he served as president, from a single store into a billion-dollar-plus business.
“Since starting Opening Ceremony, Humberto and I have worked together to create a company with a strong point of view that offers our customers a fresh shopping experience in our stores, collections and website,” Lim told Women’s Wear Daily. “Our growth over the years has been organic, but also strategic, and the relationship with Berkshire provides Opening Ceremony with broad resources to grow to the next level.”