As a designer in the CFDA Fashion Incubator, an initiative supported by W Hotels Worldwide that fosters young fashion brands, Misha Nonoo was given a round-trip ticket to travel abroad this winter to seek inspiration for her forthcoming resort and spring 2016 collections. She spun the globe and put her finger on Beijing. “I’ve always been fascinated by the Great Wall and the immense history of Beijing,” she says. “And now that China has the number-one economy, I was curious to see how it would change in the future.” Having grown up in Bahrain and London before moving to Paris and later New York, Nonoo has something of a gypsy spirit, which is often evident in her collections. For spring 2013, she nodded to Havana’s languid climes with crisp white silhouettes and colorful prints, while the following season she featured a palette of black-and-red fabrics and furry hats reminiscent of a trip to the Russian countryside.

Upon landing in Beijing for her six-day scouting trip, Nonoo acclimated herself by hopping on the city’s mass transit system. “When you go by car, you just arrive somewhere; you don’t take the actual journey,” she says. “The subway is dirt-cheap and fast, and nothing is written in English so you need to get detailed descriptions of what the characters look like for where you’re going. It’s totally foreign. When you’re confused by your surroundings, I find that deepens the adventure.” Here, Nonoo shares snapshots of what caught her eye.