Our Legacy Was Almost Called ‘Archangel’

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On Friday afternoon in Milan, Our Legacy co-founders Christopher Nying and Jockum Hallin were taking a walk down memory lane. “Ah, here’s the hate mail,” said Nying, the brand’s creative director, grabbing a graphic T-shirt on which he’d reprinted a few actual letters from an inexplicably irate fan: “You are sellouts,” “You fucked up assholes,” etc. Standing in their bustling Milan showroom, they paused, trying to remember exactly what they did to deserve it. “I think it could have been a Stüssy drop?” Nying wondered. Hallin, who leads Our Legacy’s fulsome collaboration business, noted that the messages arrived before LVMH’s venture capital arm took a minority stake in the brand last year. “So before we actually sold out,” Nying said, laughing.

This year marks 20 years since Nying and Hallin first launched Our Legacy with a line of T-shirts. In the two decades that followed, they authored one of contemporary menswear’s greatest and perhaps most unlikely success stories by bringing a hardcore attitude and experimental spirit to high-quality, wearable clothing, a mission that they’ve actually doubled down on (hate mail notwithstanding) to mark their latest milestone. Rather than reissue a catalogue of greatest hits to celebrate—Our Legacy’s famous digital denim-printed jeans, square-toe Camion boots, billowy raw silk shirts, the list goes on—the co-founders revisited the B-sides, reviving deep cut designs, fabrics from the cutting room floor, and employee favorites.

“We brought back stuff that was slept on or forgotten or didn’t make it, that was edited out,” Hallin noted as we strolled through the brand’s airy Milan showroom, pointing out some pointy cowboy boots from, “like, a space cowboy collection.”

“We also took some old techniques that we never really achieved,” added Nying, grabbing a gossamer silk cupro coat with a crinkly wax finish—luxurious in Our Legacy’s subtle, unpretentious way. “We tried to do it 10 years ago, but it was really bad. But now we know how to actually do it.”

A necktie printed with an airbrushed winged skeleton that looked ripped from a death metal band tee caught my eye. The motif, Nying explained, was featured in their very first collection in 2005. He shook his head. “At that time, I felt like Our Legacy is a good name—but maybe Archangel is even better!”

It’s hard to imagine Archangel cornering the upper-middle menswear market. (Headline: “LVMH Luxury Ventures and Archangel’s Space Cowboys: a Match Made in Heaven?”) It’s also hard to imagine it becoming a star of Milan Fashion Week. But that’s exactly what Our Legacy is these days after making the rare move from Paris to Milan after the pandemic. “We wanted to try something new, and in Milano we have the advantage of being one of the first collections the buyers get to see, they come in with fresh eyes and good energy,” Hallin told me.