Welcome to Traveling Through, a podcast hosted by David Prior, where we trace the places, encounters, and unexpected discoveries that have influenced some of today’s most creative minds. Listen on Apple Music, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Few designers have changed the way Americans dress quite like Jenna Lyons. As executive creative director of J.Crew for nearly two decades, she reshaped casual fashion—convincing a generation that a sequined skirt belonged with a chambray shirt, or that leopard could be a neutral print. She left in 2017, and has since launched the eyelash brand LoveSeen, become a partner at a brand consultancy, and appeared as a judge on Project Runway.

Last month, Lyons joined PRIOR and Capital One in Milan to lead a small group of style-minded travelers through the archives of a historic silk manufacturer, the private atelier of Dimorestudio, and the costume workshops of La Scala. The experience was a window into how she sees the world, in all its color and texture.

In this episode of Traveling Through, Lyons looks back on her years of business travel—to Como print houses, Japanese denim mills, and cashmere auctions in inner China—that she was often too exhausted to enjoy. “The travel I've done since I left J.Crew has been so much more enriching,” she says. “I was always tired, stressed, so focused on work.”

The conversation moves from a Kyoto broom-maker separating reeds with monastic precision to an ikebana class where she was informed, with great courtesy, that her arrangement was not particularly good. We also learn about a mushroom tart in the south of France, made by a farmer's wife, that marked an early epiphany about the sensuality of food.

Lyons has spent her career teaching people about beauty—how to create it, but also how to properly observe it. The best travelers, she argues, do much the same thing.

Watch the full episode above, or listen by subscribing on Apple Music or Spotify.