By Ayo Ojo

Behold a restless designer. A man powered by his thoughts, which tirelessly yearns for home. Paul Williams, far from home — at least his roots — and now finding home in a new system, is surprisingly at the Riga Fashion Week in faraway Latvia. In April, he debuted there with his inquisitive collection, Ìrìn Àjò: Between Here and Home, reminding us once again that home is a memory.

A wash of aged metallics, earthy jacquards and softened tailoring sweeps through Ìrìn Àjò: Between Here and Home, creating one of the designer’s most introspective collections yet. The Autumn/Winter 2026 collection finds Williams examining migration through clothes, ‘scapegoating’ his own experience of moving from Nigeria to the United Kingdom into an expanded study of movement, emotions and survival.

The collection seems to recall the exhaustion of searching for stability, navigating rejection, working through uncertainty and carrying financial responsibilities from home. It’s boldly written in the tones, fabric, and silhouettes that define the collection. It’s a flamboyant display of texture, elegance, and functional design.

It’s also a very monotone collection. A series of black tailored playsuits brings sharper energy into the collection. Short hemlines. Smart gaits. The entire silhouette was crafted to scream youth. Williams has always had an eye for clothes like this, judging from his previous collections.

Other highlights from the collection that dazzled this writer included an oversized ivory jacket. A short pastel skirt. A turquoise menswear look And a floor-length copper coat. Richly textured and paired with matching headwear, the piece feels regal, almost nomadic in its sweep. There is also something distinctly Paul Williams about the cap. His previous collections have repeatedly explored Nigerian sartorial memory, particularly through Yoruba menswear and the Fila. Williams’ strongest pieces in this collection feel like clothes that have travelled.

The collection also lands at an important moment in the designer’s trajectory. Williams’ Dénolá SS25 collection explored Yoruba ancestral memory through Agbada-inspired silhouettes, Aso-Oke, embroidery and the Fila. Ìrìn Àjò carries his investigation of identity into the realities of diaspora. The designer appears increasingly curious in what heritage becomes during and after movement.

Significantly, this showcase also means that Williams might be the first Nigerian designer and first African fashion house to appear on the Riga runway.

Cohesively, Irin Ajo is a collection shaped by leaving Africa, created from the anxieties of finding one’s footing in Europe, eventually presented by its Nigerian designer on another European stage. It’s a cocktail of coincidences. And Williams stitches everything into the clothes.