The Tamesis
Our Heritage’s Christopher Nying has the soul of a poet, a man who finds strength in vulnerability and fragility in the expression of masculinity. This is a different way of looking at the world than the might-equals-right posture that currently prevails in the United States.
OL will open a flagship store in Paris, so the team will also move the show location to Paris this season. With a focus on functionality and melancholy – concepts intertwined with the Swedish spirit – the collection is one of the brand’s most Nordic yet. As the notes say, in pursuit of “the restoration of clothing to its most honest and typical form,” the team looked at real workwear, such as Swedish mechanics’ jackets (traditionally designed with cold temperatures in mind). “Normally, I’ve been adapting work clothes in our own way; we replace the styles with slightly different or more fashionable fabrics, but this time I actually used the original garments,” Nying explained over the phone. The result is that clothes are no longer standard.
Certain pieces are based directly on archival workwear, with new “right time” tags that pay homage to their functional origins. Ning said that a pair of chinos made of khaki “will bleed when washed, so it will become lighter, lighter, lighter.” The team’s design for custom car jackets is more interpretive. After examining Depression-era Swedish tweed, they painted the outside in “vintage-looking” wool, while the materials on the inside remained original. Nying’s update to the Reversible MA-1 is both important and invisible; it’s “insulated” with proprietary and fully recyclable padding made from factory waste.
Contrasting with the purpose-built garments were more poetic garments with details such as poke-style floral prints, self-tied rosettes and wired or raw edges cut from light-colored and sometimes sheer materials. The silhouettes feature rugged leathers, luxe suedes and dreamy metallic denim as Nying explores a sadness – one that’s very much in sync with the zeitgeist.
“It’s tragic and romantic at the same time,” Ning said of the atmosphere he created. The way the models grasped their fringed capes was introverted and protective. Nin, who grew up in Sweden’s Bible Belt, recalls how, as a young man, “you had to cover your shoulders in church.” This quiet sign of respect for power beyond money meant a lot. “I think there was a lot of noise [in fashion] “He lowered his voice and launched a series of peaceful soft power masterclasses,” Ning said.
