Following news that asylum-seekers from Gambia and Mali hit the men’s fashion runway at Florence’s prestigious Pitti Uomo exhibition, Nigerian designer Wale Oyejide is hoping to shift perceptions of African migrants through fashion imagery.

Oyejide, who helms menswear brand Ikiré Jones, cast African asylum-seekers to star in an editorial for the label’s Fall/Winter 2016 collection. Oyejide hopes that images like these will help to humanize African men who migrate to Europe.

During the Pitto Uomo exhibition, Oyejide spoke on the importance of fashion during the ongoing migrant crisis in Italy.

“Clothing is just a vehicle, I’m much more interested in discussing these issues… of migration, of borders being crossed,” Oyejide says. “If I take an asylum seeker and put them in a suit, people perceive them in a certain way, which hopefully allows them to think of them as an equal human being, not as someones less than them.”

Shot by Neil Watson, through the streets of Italy, Gitteh, Abdoulay, Madi sport bold looks from Ikiré Jones’ F/W 16 collection.