How Our Legacy Became the Biggest Little Fashion Brand in the World

The Swedish brand Our Legacy has been cultishly treasured by fans around the world for years. Now, it's finding a level of success that even its founders didn't see coming. GQ went to Stockholm to see up close how a beloved indie label is suddenly preparing for fashion's main stage. 

- NOAH JOHNSON

THE CREATIVE director is asleep on the couch. His vintage Margiela boots are on the floor beside him. It's not yet noon but it's already been a big day for Cristopher Nying. And an even bigger week. This whole year, in fact, and the couple preceding it, have been quite big for Nying and his partners at Our Legacy.

It's November in Stockholm. The sun sets around 3 p.m. and the clouds hang low and dense, like a thick layer of wool. The nights are long. Last night especially. It started with a party at the Our Legacy Work Shop store one of two boutiques the company operates in Stockholm-to celebrate the brand's latest blockbuster collaboration, with Emporio Armani. Nying and his partners, Jockum Hallin, with whom he cofounded Our Legacy in 2005, and Richardos Klarén, who joined the business a couple years later, hosted a very cool soiree of what I can only assume are the most stylish people in all of Sweden. A crew of young chefs passed around veal tartare and glasses of natural wine while friends, relatives, and fans got a first look at the goods. After that, a family dinner at Bord, a favorite Stockholm restaurant, which served mountains of wood-fired langoustines from the Baltic Sea and cold pilsner by the glass. Finally, a group congregated at an underground karaoke bar. When I tapped out for the night, Nying had just finished one of the most riveting performances I have ever seen"Give It Away," by the Chili Peppers, performed entirely as a freestyle.