Opening Ceremony skips NYFW for dance spectacle

By

Kate Dingwall

Published
Jan 16, 2017

Opening Ceremony is the newest brand to ditch New York Fashion Week. Instead of their usual showing, founders, Carol Lim & Humberto Leon have opted for an unconventional dance performance with the New York City Ballet.

Instead of the typical runway event, Opening Ceremony has recruited star choreographer Justin Peck to stage an exclusive experience together with the New York City Ballet. The January 28 performance, entitled “The Times Are Racing”, will feature dancers outfitted in Opening Ceremony’s latest designs.

Immediately prior to the show, the collection will be released in Opening Ceremony stores and via the retailer’s e-commerce website.

The collection is designed by Leon with insight by Peck, who already played a role in previous OC collections, making headlines at Opening Ceremony’s September 2015 shows when models (who turned out to be NYC Ballet dancers,) began to trip on the runway, bursting into a choreographed routine as they fell.

Designer after designer has been announcing that they will be stepping away from New York Fashion Week for a variety of reasons. Rebecca Minkoff moved her show from her home base of New York to Los Angeles, where she will be gearing the see-now-buy-now show for customers rather than press. Press and buyers were shown the collection months ago, so the collection will be available in stores and shown in magazines as soon as the collection is released. Tommy Hilfiger also chose to relocate his runway to LA.

 DKNY opted out of the brand’s usual star-studded showing for a round of low-key showroom appointments, while TommyHilfiger and Vera Wang will be skipping the week altogether. Derek Lam, Diane Von Furstenberg, and Kate Spade left the runway in favor of more intimate presentations.