Our Legacy Work Shop x Emporio Armani Is the Swedish-Italian Collab You Didn’t Know You Needed

The Swedish brand Our Legacy’s ties to Italy go deeper than choosing to show there; Cristopher Nying has Italian roots. Recently the creative director, co-founder Jockum Hallin, and the OL team have been spending time in Pantelleria, where they photographed the second Emporio Armani Our Legacy Work Shop collection, this time with womenswear added.

This unexpected meeting of North and South dates to late 2023 when the first offering debuted. In addition to being broader, this new spring collection goes deeper in terms of fabric development. “The first time around we kind of dug in the Emporio Armani archive and then we tried to find things that resembled what we found in our deadstock piles,” Hallin says on a call. This time, OL Work Shop made replicas of Emporio Armani fabrics or used limited yardage sourced from the Italian brand. This syncs nicely with OL Work Shop’s mission to “work with what’s just in front of you,” as Hallin puts it. Among the most interesting materials are a textural linen and a pink floral warp-print taffeta. “Women’s seems very different for Giorgio Armani than menswear; for us it’s a bit the same,” explains Nying.

The overall approach to the project was mostly the same: to bring OL into the world of Armani. “I have a lot of respect for Giorgio…he talks a lot about elegance,” says Nying. “What we tried to do is to connect to the history of Giorgio Armani, not only Emporio. The sub-brand, launched in 1981, was good at “really connecting with youth culture and things”—as is Our Legacy today.

Eastern influences, seen in a kimono coat and lapel-less jackets, reference Giorgio Armani’s work, and a cat print on T-shirts nod to the Italian designer’s fondness for felines. A shadowy plaid, pinstripes cut into track-suit shapes, and color-blocked (black and brown) moto jackets bring in OL elements, which can be found in washed jeans with godets on the inside leg seams as well. The palette is neutral, the silhouette long and fluid. These are clothes that capture a relaxed island vibe. Nying’s focus on Armani’s “more soft language,” resulted in what he calls “collapsed tailoring.” Our Legacy Work Shop x Emporio Armani, Hallin notes, is about “this really comfortable way of dressing elegant.”