Our Legacy’s Cristopher Nying continues to excel at making stealth style sing. There’s nothing showy about this Swedish brand, which even in expansion mode remains personal, modern, and engaged with the physical, tactile world. That’s expressed through fabric selections and treatments every season and was well communicated for spring by the street style-like photographs of the lookbook.
Tea for Two is the title Nying gave to a lineup that explored, and paid homage to, 20th century British subcultures (including Teddy Boys, Mods, and New Romantics), most of which are related to distinct genres of music, from reggae to goth.
As always, the starting point was subjective; Nying pulled up memories of a trip he made in the early aughts to visit his wife who was then working in London, where he “experienced a lot of different clashes.” As remembrances are always fuzzy edged, the results of revisiting them are impressionistic rather than exact. Speaking of the theme, Nying explained, “It’s my kind of cherry picking…. This is more a love letter; I would never say that I know everything about this [subject]. That’s where we also try to be humble; maybe [the clothes] become more minimalistic.”
Besides pops of red, the palette was mostly neutral; even the tartans were toned down, including one that was printed on a sheer material, rendering it more feminine. Tending towards romance was Nying’s use of upholstery inspired floral jacquards, one used for a gothy, hooded cocoon coat. A shirt with ruffles at the shoulders and yoke recalled the Edwardian-style dandyism beloved by the Teddy Boys of the ’50s; a zip-front peplum top was adapted from a Swedish Victorian jacket. Some of the men’s blazers featured a safety strap, an idea borrowed from polo players. Working class elements included aprons for both men and women. A female model wore a backless apron dress with denim maxi shorts. (It should be noted that the women’s offering was noticeably elevated this season.)
Of all of the British subcultures that mushroomed from the post-War period to the ravers of the ’00s, the one that Nying came back to again and again was the casuals. He’s fascinated by these soccer fans who “started to wear more smart or sartorial clothing to get into the games basically, to pass the security.” Not only that but they wore their Stone Island, Aquascutum, etc. pieces over their own more humble clothes, which lent a kind of “undercover” (Nying’s word) aspect to their subcultural subversions.
OL’s take on the trench coat, a one-time military garment appropriated by football hooligans, was slashed up the back which suggested a proper/laddish dichotomy and also allowed it to be worn in various ways. Nying also iterated on the reversible jackets the casuals favored, only his have wood camouflage linings. Fred Perry was a favorite at the pitch, and the British company gave OL full license to reinterpret their classic designs.
One of the great things about Our Legacy is that it’s so not AI. The collections are based on Nying’s lived experience; his preference for what the notes categorized as “an elegant decay” gave the clothes a broken-in look. Another way the brand is keeping things analog is with an audio project developed with Don Letts. The legendary British musician, DJ, director, and radio personality, who was born in 1956 and experienced the different waves of UK subcultures, has written and recorded a short history of the subject. Guests at the brand’s Paris showroom will be given a cassette of this audioscape; you can enjoy it anywhere you fancy by clicking on the listen prompt above.
