Opening Ceremony launches 40-piece Esprit collaboration

Esprit is the latest old-school brand being revived by the cool kids at Opening Ceremony for fall. The 40-piece apparel and accessories collection, called Esprit by Opening Ceremony, includes men’s, women’s and unisex styles plucked from the brand’s Eighties-Nineties California heyday.

“Carol [Lim] and I grew up in the era of Esprit’s amazingness,” said Opening Ceremony cofounder Humberto Leon. “It’s always been a brand that, I would say probably even as early as Opening Ceremony opened, we’ve always talked about doing something with Esprit. The timing is kind of perfect.” Leon said he and Lim didn’t just reissue from Esprit’s archive, but modernized pieces through fit and fabrication. He noted Esprit’s distinctive way of outfit clashing. Charlotte Wales shot a campaign for the collaboration, featuring an ensemble cast of models styled by Charlotte Collet to evoke Esprit’s famous Eighties advertisements.

“We are happy to see the creative vision of our founders, Susie and Doug Tompkins, revived in a contemporary and current way by way of Humberto and Carol’s design sensibility,” said Arnd Müller, chief brand marketing officer of Esprit. “It shows that Esprit’s original vision is still today as relevant as ever.”

Esprit by Opening Ceremony launches with its own U.S. locations as well as at Selfridges in London, Tom Greyhound in Paris, i.T in Hong Kong and Beijing and online for global shipping at openingceremony.com.