WASHINGTON — Carol Lim’s and Humberto Leon’s Opening Ceremony has won this year’s Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Fashion Design.
Lim and Leon founded Opening Ceremony in 2002 with a concept boutique encompassing their passion for travel and fashion. The company has since expanded and now consists of the Opening Ceremony ready-to-wear, accessories and footwear collections for men and women, as well as retail outlets in New York, Los Angeles and Nagoya and Tokyo. They also have a wholesale showroom in New York and an online platform.
Lim and Leon also are creative directors of Kenzo, which is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
The National Design Awards is in its 17th year and was established to promote design as a “vital humanistic tool” in shaping everything from architecture to fashion design to art, music and dance.
This year’s other recipients include: Moshe Safdie for Lifetime Achievement; Make It Right for Director’s Award; Bruce Mau for Design Mind; Center for Urban Pedagogy for Corporate & Institutional Achievement; Marlon Blackwell Architects for Architecture Design; Geoff McFetridge for Communication Design; Tellart for Interaction Design; Studio O+A for Interior Design; Hargreaves Associates for Landscape Architecture, and Ammunition for Product Design.
The award recipients will be honored at a gala dinner Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden at Cooper Hewitt.
First Lady Michelle Obama serves as the honorary patron for this year’s National Design Awards, which was first launched at the White House in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council.