First Look: Opening Ceremony for Hickey Freeman

It seems that, of late, Opening Ceremony's main focus has been nothing less than world domination. Whether it be knocking it out of the park with their in-house line, expanding their real estate domain (when we swung by the Howard street store yesterday for a quick browse, we were directed to a new annex next door, where we've fought it out with ravenous shoppers during the sample sale in the past), collaborating with fabulous fashion doyennes and celebrities and ruling New York, there seems nothing that the boutique can't do. In fact, it almost seems condescending or glib to call it a store, as its a major fashion influencer, and its effects can be seen in most corners of the fashion world. Their newest obsession du jour seems to be taking older, forgetten-about brands (ie Pendleton) and seeing if they can single-handedly revive their previous luster. And that they can. Take for example, the rack of lush, slim, tactile suits in masculine dark tones that hung gingerly at their Soho locale. We ran our hand over their delicious fabrics and pulled one out, thinking to ourselves, "Damn, we love a Band of Outsiders suit --er?" But aha it was not, in fact, a fabulous creation of Mr. Sternberg's. It was their newest takeover, Hickey Freeman. They took the Rochester-based suiting specialist and gave them a slick makeover. The cut was modern, for the anti-finance guy, with a slim leg, a shoulder-hugging jacket and a modern, high cuff -- purposefully dorky. The patterns were interesting but not absurd -- a large window-paned plaid double-breasted number looked like a modern mobster's dream come true -- but also with a bit of personality.

Ok, Opening Ceremony. You win again.