STORE EXPANSIONS: Opening Ceremony's New Addition Comes With A Workout

Despite its overwhelmingly adoring hype, there really is still no other store in the city as interesting and entertaining as Opening Ceremony, but over the years, as its Howard Street home has become ever more crammed with goods, it has seemed inevitable that some kind of expansion would have to happen.

This Fall, it finally has. The store has taken over two floors in the building next door at 33 Howard Street. Of course, the main store remains no less stuffed with merchandise, so you may not initally notice that some of the store's biggest vendors —Alexander Wang and Band Of Outsiders to name a couple— have moved to the new space, which as far as we can tell, is not at all connected to the main store.

We said Opening Ceremony was enjoyable and interesting, but we didn't say it was easy. There is little particular logic in the store's merchandising scheme, and even on a good day, a certain patience and natural inquisitiveness is required, since men's and women's clothing, shoes and accessories are all represented in all sections of the store. Skip a room, and you might miss the perfect little something that you didn't know you had to have. With two full floors and a mezzanine, the original store demands a bit of stair-climbing, and the new annex continues the tradition with a steep staircase to conquer before you get inside at all. Festooned with welcoming slogans, the stairwell also features a farewell graffiti to face you on your way out. Once inside, there is more of the store's familiar funky store design, and yes, one more winding stairwell that brought us to another floor with more men's and women's shoes and accessories.

Of course, what this all boils down to is more Opening Ceremony, which is always a good thing, just be sure to do a little bit of carbo-loading before you go. You'll definitely burn it off.

Opening Ceremony 35 and now 33 Howard Street at Crosby Street, SoHo