ON A MISSION: Misha Nonoo is on a week-long trip to Beijing, where she is busy immersing herself in the local culture, connecting with Chinese fashion editors and gleaning design inspiration.
Nonoo kicked off her visit with a private dinner and fashion show of selected looks from her spring-summer 2015 collection on Tuesday night at the newly opened W Beijing hotel. Nonoo is a member of the CDFA’s Fashion Incubator program, which, in partnership with W Hotels, sends emerging designers to a destination of their choice where they can seek cultural inspiration, media exposure and insight into new markets.
Nonoo said she chose Beijing because she is “deeply fascinated by the culture and history” of the country. The designer is visiting sites both ancient and modern-day, including the Forbidden City and 798 Art Zone.
“I have always wanted to see the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City as well as more contemporary art,” she said. “My personality is this tension between the traditional and the contemporary, and I think Beijing has both in spades.”
Nonoo said inspiration from the trip would likely appear in her 2016 resort collection. Cultural inspiration, however, was not the only reason for Nonoo’s decision to come. She said she is also interested in introducing her own brand to China. At Tuesday night’s event, attendees mainly included domestic media, a move meant to raise Nonoo’s exposure here.
“I was really interested to learn a bit more about the population here and to see how people go about their daily lives,” she said. “I wanted to dip my toe into the water and educate myself about what is now the world’s number one economy, so that was definitely another factor for coming.”