Our Legacy Menswear Spring 2021

When Christopher Nying was a boy growing up in the Swedish town of Husqvarna, he crashed his motocross bike into a tree and his mother returned it to the store. “So the dream was broken, and I had to be with my BMX and put my hockey gear under my sweaters and try to look like a real biker,” the Our Legacy creative director, related on a recent Zoom call. In the end, motocross’s loss was fashion’s gain. Pandemic-imposed boundaries seemed to be freeing for the designer, who carried the concept of upcycling, which is the central tenet of the Our Legacy Workshop, a craft and retail platform focused on circularity, into the main collections. He made use of deadstock fabric and cut up and incorporated vintage Swedish biking gear into new pieces. Nying also revisited OL classics, including both favorite pieces and others that didn’t get their moment in the sun. An existing cropped suede vest, for example, was reimagined with leather biker sleeves and a lip appliqué at the nape. “Recycling not only garments, but also ourselves was a very interesting step,” wrote Nying in his show notes.