30 THE CUT | MARCH 2 15, 20202000 An Idea Is Born
The two friends move to New York
and begin working in fashion,
Carol at Bally (after a stint as an
investment banker) and Humberto
at Burberry. In April, they visit
Hong Kong: They shop, meet
designers, eat, and get massages.
They al
they’ll t
and bring back what they find.
Carol:On the plane, we were like,
“Everyone would love all this stuff!”2001 ‘Let’s Do This’
Carol and Humberto meet every
Sunday to hash out a business
plan over dim sum—cheung fun
(shrimp rice rolls), turnip cakes,
chive dumplings, and pork buns—
at Jing Fong on Elizabeth Street.
The hard part is coming up
a
to d to be rooted in
the idea of travel. We kept
throwing out names like “Terminal”
and then we would be like, “Ohmy God, no. That sounds like
‘terminally ill.’”
C:They all seemed so pretentious.
H:Our friend Shannon Han was
like, “What about ‘Opening
Ceremony?’” And we were like,
“You can’t really make fun of
that.”Ceremonyis a hard word to
be bitchy about.END OF AN ERA“You Had to Be There”ByEmilia Petrarcaat the startof this year, Opening Ceremony announced it had been bought by the New
Guards Group and would be closing its four retail locations: the flagship on Howard
Street, where it all started; the shop in the Ace Hotel near Madison Square; and the stores
in Los Angeles and Tokyo (which was the first to shut). OC was founded in 2002 by best friends
Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, who met as sophomores at UC Berkeley (“We bonded over her
studying, me going out, me forcing her to go out, and me not study-
ing,” Humberto once said). In everything they did, they operated
on instinct and enthusiasm. It paid off. OC quickly became the
defining store of its era—a hub for the fashion-curious seeking new
brands from both around the globe and emerging local talent.
Many New Yorkers first met Acne, Alexander Wang, and even
Havaianas there. The Soho location was a clubhouse for the world
famous and downtown famous, who all considered themselves
“family.” But it also strove to be a place where anyone could hang
out. “It’s like your favorite record store, but a clothing store,” Chloë Sevigny told this magazine in
2010, shortly after the company expanded to Japan. But, as with record stores before it, the music
moved elsewhere. “You had to be there,” says Humberto.35 Howard Street, where it all began.Carol Lim and Humberto Leon
as Berkeley undergrads in 1995.
Riffing on the idea of the
Olympics, they decide that each
year will be dedicated to a
different country, with designers
from around the world
“competing” with local ones.
August They each have $10,000
saved up and give notice at work.
H: We thought we were loaded.
September After 9/11, they take
their bosses’ advice to not leave their
jobs after all. But a couple of months
later, they decide they can’t undream
their dream. They find their way to
a pro bono business adviser at Pace
University, where they get help
drafting a real business plan.
H: The original was like, “Our
store is going to be open from
9 a.m. to midnight, maybe 2 a.m.
We’re going to have a register that
sits on this big lazy Susan, and
then at 8 p.m., the lazy Susan turns
from a register to a DJ booth.
Basically, we think all our friends
are going to want to hang out and
shop until two.” But they were
like, “Guys, banks don’t want to
see anything about a lazy Susan.”
C: We still have the version
with the lazy Susan. In the next
iteration, it’ll come back.
2002 Howard Street Is Home
A bank loans them $20,000, and
they rent a former fabric store with
a “massage parlor” in the
basement on an out-of-the-way
stretch at the southern terminus ofAn oral history ofOpening Ceremony,New York’s most
downtown-y retailstore, on theeve of its closing.
By Emilia Petrarca2013
The tote.