The influential American department store Opening Ceremony and Japan seems such a natural fit, you almost wonder why it hadn’t opened up there sooner.  After all, Japan was the featured country in 2008 for Opening Ceremony’s unique retail take on the Olympics – pairing US designers with the hottest designers from a different country each season.
“We have been wanting to open in Tokyo for quite some time now and the right space came up so we decided to go with it,” says co-owner, Humberto Leon. “The feeling had to be right and we felt it was time to expand into the market that inspired us originally.”

The store opening in the hip Shibuya area will expand on the LA “mini mall” concept, in featuring partnered stalls inside from the likes of Alexander Wang, The Row, Band of Outsiders, Other Music and even a newly concepted restaurant – Potluck at Opening Ceremony. “It will be different but with the same spirit”, promises Leon. The Tokyo store will remain true to the original mission statement of mixing established designers with exciting up-and-comers.  “We are introducing a level of culture into the Japan store that we feel is important in this market at this time. In Japan, the market is very specific when it comes to designers within,” remarks Leon, “We are introducing a new brand “Opening Celebration” as well as doing special collaborations with great brands like Togo and Masterpiece.”

To celebrate the store opening on August 30, Opening Ceremony commissioned short films from directors, M Blash (‘Lying’), Matt Wolf (‘Wild Combination’) and Joe Denardo. “We wanted to celebrate the Japanese opening with friends and these directors are friends whose work we really love. We felt it was appropriate to have directors that knew the spirit of Opening Ceremony. The videos are all so different but each one more special than the next. We are very excited to have these playing not only in Japan but around the world.” In the first film directed by Joe Denardo, Opening Ceremony designer and perennial style icon, Chloë Sevigny grooves to blippy music while showing off her A/W 09 collection for Opening Ceremony. Look out for films featuring the unlikely partnership of Gus Van Sant and Jena Malone and Jason Schwartman in the coming days on DazedDigital.

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