Our Legacy Fall 2025 Menswear

“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts” —William Shakespeare, from As You Like It

That LVMH took a minority stake in Our Legacy in November is big news—big news that, thankfully, had no visible impact on the brand’s strong showing for fall. Why fix what’s not broken? According to designer Cristopher Nying, the plan is for OL to keep on keeping on with their winning formula, while using the conglomerate’s know-how to enhance production and transform the OL experience at retail.

Personified, Our Legacy is the strong, silent type in a world where it seems like you have to shout to be heard. Nying’s designs are defined by nuance and subtly; this season he pushed those qualities to the limit by trying to capture, through color and texture, the deep and layered aromas that are to be found in cigars shops. On a call, the designer spoke of the transformation, in Stockholm, of smoky old-school tabak kiosks a-jumble with magazines, chocolates and snus into characterless parcel centers. Building on that idea, the team used the boxes the clothes had been shipped in and packing tape to construct a homely kraft-paper tobacconist shop in the middle of a slick, white industrial space, with walls made of black-and-white photos of the collection printed, as if floating, on plastic. The contrast between the dry, porous paper—a natural material—and the slick transparency of the synthetic plastic set up one of the many dichotomies at play in the collection.

Transformation, especially in relation to the environment, was Nying’s preoccupation this season. It’s not only his local tabak that’s been altered; the designer recounted that he ran into a man he played floor hockey with in the park, and didn’t recognize him out of context. Running with that idea, two different sets have been created for the lookbook, in which the images are meant to be read in pairs. The environment on the left, all warm, polished wood, is meant to resemble an auditorium—aula in Swedish, which is the title of the collection. (Shades of Tár?) The set on the right side features painted wood paneling and plastic stretched on a frame, and the idea, Nying explained, was that the atmosphere should be tinged yellow as if things had been smoke stained. That concept was cleverly materialized in a pair of jeans that fade to a buttery color rather than white. There was sly humor, too, in having look one be a variant on a smoking—in this case a wrap jacket with a body in “ash gray” melton. (Tobacco brown was another hue on the season’s color card.)

Each double-page, night-to-day, formal to casual transformation is shown on a single model whose looks have been altered with hair cuts, shaves, make-up and wigs. The idea, as it was put in the press release, was to stress “the tension between the safe anonymity of everyday life and the sharpness of being ‘on duty.’” In Nying’s world, as he noted, casual comes with a grungy feel. Moto accents is another of the designer’s hobby horses and were present in wide girdle belts that drew in waists.

Looks on the right tend to be a bit more structured and the fabrics crisper, while on the left are soft fleeces and washed denim. In the red and black ensembles there was an attempt to make a sporty look evening ready—the sleeveless men’s top was inspired by a tuxedo shirt—that was a bit of a stretch. The season’s “elephant” cords bridged the divide nicely, as did tailored coats. A checked boiled wool women’s coat in a khaki green was noteworthy, as was the contrasting lining in a zip-front jacket, the kind a wizened tobacconist, or hipster, might favor. Zoom in and you’ll find that a tiny bow was sewn onto the ring finger of leather gloves, and the petals in the people-like flower print bloom into skulls. A memento mori from a brand that is coming into full bloom.

The undeniable success—and influence—of the brand at this time can to some extent, like the collection, be understood in context of time and place. Although Nying’s designs are ever evolving, Our Legacy has not changed drastically, but the world has. This collection took the performative aspects of life in a digital age and acknowledged the power of fashion to express our different selves. The difference lies in proportion: OL is a global company that operates on a human scale, and has done from day one. The “our” in the brand name references the fact that the company was founded by three friends. What differentiates OL is that it delivers “main character energy” for those whose stage is everyday life. The evening options here were polished without being formal, the casual looks had special detail. Whatever the situation, the person wears OL clothing, rather than the other way around. It’s a non-hierarchical proposition, clothes that allow you to choose your own adventure and allow your star to shine without dimming anyone else’s. As Nying said, with a smile, “we are lagom” (referring to the Swedish ideal of “not too much, not too little”), which sounds just right for the times we’re in.