Our Legacy’s Emporio Armani collaboration reworks the archive: ‘These fabrics carry history’

The second chapter of Our Legacy Work Shop Emporio Armani sees the Swedish brand reimagine archival Emporio styles and fabrics, including womenswear for the first time

Our Legacy Emporio Armani Collaboration
Our Legacy Work Shop Emporio Armani photographed in Pantelleria, Italy
(Image credit: Alasdair McLellan)

The volcanic island of Pantelleria, 62 miles off the coast of Sicily, has long been a haven for Giorgio Armani, whose sun-soaked villa – constructed from two renovated dammusi, a traditional dwelling on the island – has been a perennial summer refuge for the designer (he spends every August there).

Now, Pantelleria provides a dramatic backdrop for the second chapter of Emporio Armani’s collaboration with Stockholm-based label Our Legacy, photographed by British photographer Alasdair McLellan in an evocative series of images backdropped by remote volcanic vistas, serene coves, and sun-baked roadways.

Our Legacy Work Shop Emporio Armani reworks the archive

Our Legacy Emporio Armani Collaboration

(Image credit: Alasdair McLellan)

The somewhat unexpected collaboration – Emporio Armani is known for a sleek, sportswear-inflected modernity; Our Legacy has a more grungy, undone aesthetic, inspired by subcultural dress codes – began in 2023, with a cat-adorned collection which found common ground in vintage Emporio Armani cuts and silhouettes.

Chapter two mines a similar mood: part of our legacy’s ‘Work Shop’, an ‘experimental hub’ of the Swedish brand, the collection reworks archival Emporio Armani fabrics and silhouettes in Our Legacy’s easy, undone style (slouchy silhouettes, raw-cut hems, worn-in finishes and the like). The collection features both mens and womenswear, the latter for the first time.

Our Legacy Emporio Armani Collaboration

(Image credit: Alasdair McLellan)

Other pieces nod towards Mr Armani’s inspiration from East Asian style: stand-collar jackets, wrapped kimono-inspired cuts and Japanese florals all feature in the collection. A new version of Our Legacy ‘Cigarr’ slip-on mule, meanwhile, is designed to recall hotel slippers.

‘To design within the boundaries of what already exists is a challenge – but also an opportunity,’ says Cristopher Nying, Our Legacy’s creative director. ‘These fabrics carry history. Seeing them return in a new form made the entire process unexpectedly rewarding.’

Our Legacy Emporio Armani Collaboration

(Image credit: Alasdair McLellan)

‘I love things that age well,’ adds Mr Armani. ‘Things that don’t date, that stand the test of time both in terms of durability and wearability.’

Our Legacy Work Shop Emporio Armani is available from 16 May 2025, at the Armani/Manzoni store in Milan, various Dover Street Market and Our Legacy locations, alongside selected stores worldwide.

armani.com

Our Legacy Emporio Armani Collaboration

(Image credit: Alasdair McLellan)
Fashion Features Editor

Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*, joining the team in 2022. Having previously been the digital features editor at AnOther and digital editor at 10 and 10 Men magazines, he has also contributed to titles including i-D, Dazed, 10 Magazine, Mr Porter’s The Journal and more, while also featuring in Dazed: 32 Years Confused: The Covers, published by Rizzoli. He is particularly interested in the moments when fashion intersects with other creative disciplines – notably art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and reporting from international fashion weeks. Across his career, he has interviewed the fashion industry’s leading figures, including Rick Owens, Pieter Mulier, Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner, Christian Lacroix, Kate Moss and Manolo Blahnik.