Our Legacy started as a punk band—but one that makes clothes instead of music. Jockum Hallin and Cristopher Nying met as kids in Jönköping, Sweden, where they worked at what Jockum calls “the best clothing store in our little town.” In 2005 they opened a distribution agency in Stockholm and soon started selling their own line of graphic tees. They called the fledgling project Our Legacy. According to Hallin, the name “was something we wouldn't get bored of, and we liked that it sort of sounds like a punk or hardcore band.” What started as a side project quickly grew into a full collection of shirts, pants, outerwear, and suits.
At first glance, Our Legacy might evoke classic Scandinavian minimalism (see: razor-sharp topcoats, smart tailoring, slim black jeans, white tees that fit so perfectly you could cry). But look closer and you'll find that the über-clean basics are gateway drugs into Our Legacy's quietly psychedelic world of far-out prints, space-age fabrics, and fresh, exaggerated proportions. Hallin and Nying are experts at taking workaday pieces like crewnecks and anoraks and using treatments like crinkled nylon, richly dyed suede, and washed-out tie-dye to twist them into something that subtly projects idiosyncratic taste. “We rarely use solid colors,” Hallin says. “We want to use colors that have more life, so we over-dye or wash the fabrics.”
Anti-establishment subcultures may be stitched into Our Legacy's fabric (Hallin and Nying still skateboard together to this day), but the brand's more about low-key subversion than shaking a fist in anyone's face. The designers aren't beholden to any particular trend or tribe; instead, they bury their influences deep. “We don't want people to see what we were inspired by,” says Hallin.
That means you can walk into one of the 250 stores around the world where Our Legacy is sold and cop a raw silk shirt or crisp white bomber jacket without having to swear allegiance to the brand's cult. In an era of designers with hype and branding ploys that outshine the actual clothes, that's probably the most punk thing a brand can do.
