NeoNomad: Tolu Olafimihan’s sartorial journey across continents

There’s a quiet rebellion in the way Tolu Olafimihan, founder and creative director of GNATION, approaches fashion. It’s measured, meticulous, and intentional, a balance between tradition and transformation. His latest collection, NeoNomad, captures that tension with clarity. It’s a study of movement, identity, and belonging, told through cloth and cut.

“NeoNomad is for the man who walks between worlds,” Olafimihan says. “Grounded in his roots, but dressed for the future.”

It’s a line that also describes the designer: a Nigerian fashion creative now based in the UK, building a transcontinental design language that feels lived-in, not staged.

From architecture to attire

Olafimihan’s background in architecture is the blueprint, and his design language merges structure with storytelling. “Architecture taught me discipline and proportion,” he says. “Fashion allowed me to translate those principles into movement, into how people wear their stories.”

You see that training in the structure of GNATION’s pieces: clean lines, controlled layering, tailoring that holds shape while still allowing the fabric to breathe. But beneath the precision is the emotional core of his work, a conversation between heritage and modernity, between where you’re from and where you’re going.

The NeoNomad collection

NeoNomad feels like a passport in textile form. It moves from handwoven Aso-oke and Akwete — Yoruba and Igbo textile languages — into English wool and cashmere, with London as a backdrop. The exchange here is dialogue, not appropriation. These aren’t nostalgia costumes; they’re clothes for the present, for people whose identities are fluid, and whose wardrobes need to keep up. They cut across borders yet manage to represent today’s fashion while appreciating timeless aesthetics.

Olafimihan describes it as “a fusion of handcrafted textiles and tailored silhouettes, a way to honour tradition while embracing the motion of life.”

The collection launched as part of a London Fashion Week campaign, with a fashion film shot on the streets of London, replete with iconic features and visual cues that nod to migration and movement. The clothes follow the same arc: seven looks moving from urban street style to sharper, dapper tailoring. There are bomber-style utility jackets cut in an oversized “big fit”, then a progression into double-breasted and tuxedo jackets in iridescent, handwoven Aso-oke, styled with tailored English wool-cashmere trousers. A monochrome tribal-print Akwete coat arrives like a cue for autumn, grounding the collection in season without losing the cultural thread.

NeoNomad also quietly opens the door to womenswear. GNATION, known primarily for menswear, introduces tailored casual women’s tops without breaking the story. The ILA WOVEN top — a multicoloured Akwete textured short sleeve with tassel detail — and the MONO BOMBER — an Aso-oke textured cropped, button-down short sleeve with beaded stone details — sit naturally within the collection’s language: practical, detailed, and rooted.

What stands out most is the fabric choice, as well as the restraint. Handwoven Aso-oke and Akwete are the collection’s anchor, locally sourced and woven in Nigeria to create each distinct piece. But instead of leaning into the bright palette these textiles are often associated with, Olafimihan goes darker: monochrome and deep shades, lifted with lighter detailing. The result is a collection where the weave, construction, and finish do most of the talking, and where conversations around fabric, sustainability, and craftsmanship feel unavoidable.

A standout: the NDOKI jacket

If NeoNomad has a thesis look, it’s the NDOKI jacket: a tailored long coat in black-and-white tribal print, paired with string-detailed Aso-oke baggy pantalons and an Aso-oke T-shirt style top. It turns heads without trying to. The look was a highlight on the runway at Africa Fashion Week London, and it has already moved beyond the show. Nigerian music star Skales, styled by Olafimihan, has worn pieces from the collection on his recent UK and Europe tour, becoming a visible collaborator for the brand.

GNATION: A label and a design philosophy

GNATION isn’t positioning itself as just a fashion label. It reads more like a design philosophy built on African craftsmanship and bespoke tailoring — with enough flexibility to dress professionals, creatives, and fashion-forward clients who want essentials with an edge.

Olafimihan’s collections also tend to extend beyond “seasonal drops”. The BLK ART Collection, created for the Seen and Unseen exhibition and Fashion Through the Lens of Art runway at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, paid tribute to Black British artists, translating artwork into wearable narrative. His Felabration 2024 exhibition, Abami Eda, honoured Fela Anikulapo Kuti with eight looks inspired by Fela’s radical style language: bold prints, layered textures, and the defiant confidence of a man who made protest into art.

“Every collection is a conversation,” he says. “Between where I come from and where I am, my journey and my experiences.”

A global Nigerian vision

From Nigeria to London, GNATION’s footprint is growing. Olafimihan has showcased at York Fashion Week 2025 and Africa Fashion Week London 2025, and his work has appeared across platforms, including Vanguard Allure, ThisDay Style, and The Guardian, with features on the Africa Fashion Week London website and VRAI Magazine, alongside blog coverage and mentions on Channels TV.

“Fashion is my way of showing that culture isn’t static. It evolves, it travels,” he says. “The more I travel across borders, the more I see how connected we all are, through craft, through creativity, through our stories.”

NeoNomad lands as exactly that: clothing for people in motion, across borders, across rooms, across versions of self. Olafimihan isn’t chasing trends. He’s tracing lineage, then cutting it into something you can actually wear.