Everyone recently has quite rightly been praising the Olympic Opening Ceremony; the Queen and James Bond, NHS nurses and the Thomas Heatherwick cauldron; yes, yes, yes but what about another kind of Opening Ceremony? Opening Ceremony (the multifaceted shop and brand) have stores in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo, and are renowned for their uber-cool collaborations with, for example, Chloë Sevigny, Adidas and Band of Outsiders. Interestingly, OC was actually named after the Olympics, appropriating the mission statement of the modern day Olympics from the founder, Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The Olympics were founded under the guise of creatively merging sports, business, and global participation, which OC have applied to fashion by capturing the cultural character of a different country for each collection.
Most recently, OC has joined forces with Topshop, to create a limited-edition collection in honour of their first ever UK store in London’s Covent Garden (sneak peek here). The colourful 3,000 sq ft pop up shop is on Covent Garden’s Kingly Street, but don’t worry there will be a permanent store remaining on the same street, after the pop-up closes up shop. Expect books from Clair de Rouen, Kenzo and Rodarte, not to mention the deconstructed interior. British designer, Fay Toogood has created a series of stand-out furniture pieces for the store, inspired by the temporary nature of the pop-up. They include translucent, light pieces on the ground floor and industrial, rubberised pieces in the basement.
Opening Ceremony, 31-32 King Street. Convent Garden WC2. July – October, 2012
Topshop x Opening Ceremony
