Why Morocco Is Such a Fashion Icon

Equally Morocco'due south Style Capital, Marrakesh Combines African Artistry with European Influence

Marrakesh, Morocco

Photograph: Mohammad Nur Ridzuan/Getty Images

Morocco's fashion uppercase is more vibrant than ever with shopping, dining, art, culture and jaw-dropping places to stay. Viia Beaumanis checks in with this definitive city guide

Marrakech has bugged tastemakers since the '60s when Yves Saint Laurent fabricated the city his 2nd home, welcoming his stylish coterie into a series of extravagant villas designed by his expert friend and interior designer Pecker Willis, who invented boho chic decor equally he trawled the souk for treasures. Gianni Agnelli, the Rolling Stones, Talitha Getty — the list of stylish insiders who flocked to Marrakech in the couturier's wake is long.

Iconic mode editor Diana Vreeland laid optics on the caftan here, splashing it beyond the pages of Faddy. The Hermès clan founded the Royal Polo Club. The Bulgari family lines their residence in Moorish tile and textiles, and Sir Richard Branson is opening hotels here. Master perfumer Serge Lutens, seduced by the scents of a boutique overflowing with tuberose, vanilla and chypre, has lived here since the '70s, crafting cult fragrances — Féminité du Bois to Ambre Sultan — in his labyrinthine sanctuary in the 14th-century medina, the walled-in heart of Marrakesh that encloses its fabled marketplace.

Talitha Getty at her home in Marrakech, 1970.
Talitha Getty at her home in Marrakech, 1970. (Photograph: Patrick Lichfield/Getty Images)

North African culture and artistry, layered with European elegance and insouciance, Morocco'south style capital is a quixotic contrast of One-time World and New. It's a kaleidoscope of caftans and kasbahs, its denizens getting around by machine or camel. There's the juxtaposition of an antediluvian souk with contemporary fine art fairs, while oualidia oysters and champagne are enjoyed in trendy boîtes as the dusk phone call to prayer rings out from local mosques.

A jet-set playground for half a century, today the urban center is more than dynamic than ever. Artistic expats are joined by a generation of young Marrakechis, unleashing new galleries, boutiques, hotels and events — even recasting Sidi Ghanem, a once-barren industrial park just outside town, into a thriving design district jammed with shops, bistros, workshops and fine art infinite.

An Art and craft shop in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Fine art and craft store in Marrakesh, Morocco. (Photo: Tunart/Getty Images)

A swathe of hip new restaurants has cutting beyond the medina. The nearly stylish amid them include Le Jardin (lejardinmarrakech.com), a leafy courtyard eatery wrapped in deep green mosaic tile; the rooftop Nomad (nomadmarrakech.com); and the dejeuner-only La Famille, a courtyard with a vegetarian carte du jour and a whitewashed Ibiza vibe. As very few places in the medina serve alcohol (they must be located more than 100 metres from any mosque to obtain a licence), it's handy to know about Kozy Bar, which is equipped with a liquor licence and a charming rooftop terrace that overlooks the 16th-century El Badii palace, complete with pelicans that perch forth its ramparts.

 Hit the town

Not that it's hard to find a cocktail in Marrakech. Hivernage and Gueliz, the modernistic neighbourhoods that wrap the medina, are scattered with watering holes and restaurants with lengthy wine lists. You'll discover an elegant oversupply downing rosé nether whirling ceiling fans on the veranda at Café de la Poste (grandcafedela poste.eating house).

Only effectually the corner, Kechmara (kechmara.com) is popular for its breezy terrace, cool bar and roster of groovy DJs. A couple blocks over, Azar (azarmarrakech.com) serves fine Lebanese food in a high-glam room enhanced past nightly belly dancers who residuum flaming candelabras on their heads. The new +61 (plus61.com) from Sebastian de Gzell, the city's hippest restaurateur, blends Mediterranean with Middle Eastern and S Asian cuisine. Out by the Palmeraie, the city's famously fun supper club, Bô-Zin (bo-zin.com) morphs into a table-hopping drinks-and-dance party, replete with drummers, dancers and DJs. For the classic Moroccan evening, it'south Dar Yacout (daryacout.com), an celebrated Moorish palace in the medina with interiors by Willis, which specializes in local dishes like tagine only also features a liquor licence.

Loftier-low stays

Of Marrakech'south myriad wonders, a profusion of truly amazing places to stay is certainly i of them. Grand palace hotels of the metropolis's Hivernage neighbourhood and the landscaped estates of the Palmeraie, a palm grove at the desert edge of the urban center, coddle high rollers in unbridled opulence. For ultra-luxe, nothing quite touches Royal Mansour (royalmansour.com), built by Morocco'due south King Mohammed Vi. Entered through a four-ton bronze gate, its bazaar is stocked with archetype Moroccan babouche slippers designed exclusively for the hotel by Christian Louboutin. Perfectly located merely off the bustling medina, this walled-in 12-acre haven is home to the city'due south grandest spa, three Michelin-starred chef Yannick Alléno and 53 private riads, traditional Moroccan homes with interior courtyards or gardens. These are drenched in mitt-carved woodwork, mosaic tile and Moroccan art. And with its three floors and rooftop terrace wrapped around a courtyard, even a i-sleeping accommodation ($two,200) is a private palace and comes with infinite bespoke touches. Monogrammed stationery, liveried aerodrome transfers, VIP service to whisk you lot through customs — and individual tours of the Serge Lutens and Yves Saint Laurent estates. Forth the twisty atmospheric lanes of the medina, budding hoteliers are snapping upward historic properties with such fervour that sheer competition keeps the rates down. Traditional Moroccan riads redesigned as guesthouses on the cheap and chic end, both DixNeuf (dixneuf-la-ksour.com), an easy-to-find medina accost, and the new Riad Goloboy (riadgoloboy.com) in the Hivernage offer well-designed lodging from $120.

The lobby courtyard at the Royal Mansour Hotel.
The vestibule courtyard at the Majestic Mansour Hotel. (Photograph: Courtesy Royal Mansour)

Galleries and Museums

For fine art and culture fans, the urban center's diversions are every bit endless. The Museum of African Contemporary Fine art Al Maaden (macaal.org) opened in 2016 to showcase the individual collection of Alami Lazraq, a developer on Forbes' 40 Richest Africans list, beyond ix,700 foursquare feet of gallery space set in a sculpture garden. On a more intimate scale, the Marrakech Fine art and Culture Museum (museemacma.com) displays paintings of Morocco by European fine artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. In Gueliz, the French colonial part of town, there'southward now a zone of ex-pat-owned galleries — Noir Sur Blanc, Matisse, Re, Tindouf, Bloch, 127 — all within strolling altitude of one another. Debuted in 2017 equally the fashion icon's lasting legacy to the urban center, the sleek Le Musée Yves Saint Laurent (museeyslmarrakech.com) overlooks the city'southward legendary
Jardin Majorelle (jardinmajorelle.com), a ii.five-acre tropical garden the designer restored and opened to the public, aslope a Berber museum, café and boutique.

Way stops

And it'south no surprise that the shopping is spectacular. Kate Moss is a fan of the Ministero del Gusto (ministerodelgusto.com), an emporium of African-inspired article of furniture run by sometime Italian Vogue editor Alessandra Lippini. Dispatched to Morocco to oversee production for brands from Kenzo to Lacroix, in 2015, Ludovic Petit debuted Lup 31 (lup31.com) to showcase his own take on Due north African pattern. Isabelle Topolina (topolina.store), a couture design-maker from Normandy, stocks a trio of eponymous shops with her vibrant garments (way editor Plum Sykes is amidst her clientele). London's Sarah Buchan launched Kaftan Queen (kaftanqueen.store). Laetitia Trouillet from Marseille got her starting time as a personal shopper for Sarah Jessica Parker and Gwyneth Paltrow and at present runs her own accessories boutique, Lalla (lalla.fr). The Belgian Valérie Barkowski (valeriebarkowski.com), former artistic director for Mia Zia, retails sumptuous home accessories from tasselled bath towels to hand-embroidered linens.

Leather slippers, or babouches designed for the Royal Mansour Hotel by Christian Louboutin.
Leather slippers, or babouches designed for the Majestic Mansour Hotel by Christian Louboutin. (Photo: Getty Images)

While Gueliz, the Hivernage or Sidi Ghanem laid out with proper streets and addresses are easy enough to navigate, it'due south a fool'southward errand to attempt the souk without a guide. An Ali Baba's cave of splendours, doing this on your own as a beginning-timer assures only that you lot'll become lost and pay more. Book Mustapha Chouquir (mustaphachouquir.com) for jaunts in the medina. Reasonably priced at $fifty for a half mean solar day, this lovely gentleman knows where everything is, helps y'all haggle and is as proficient with shopping tours as architectural and cultural forays. If you'd like your entire tour planned and guided, try Asphalt (cobblestoneprivatetravel.com), where owner Michael Diamond tailors custom itineraries — fine art, design, cuisine, out-of-town excursions —
finessing every detail from arrival through departure.

If you go

Take advantage of TAP Air Portugal's Toronto-Lisbon flights and the carrier'south stopover programme en route to Kingdom of morocco: upwardly to five nights in Lisbon at no extra accuse along with special hotel rates, free museum and gallery admissions, and a mobile app loaded with city tips. (world wide web.flytap.com)

  • Marrakech International Picture Festival celebrates the city equally a thriving motion picture production hub. This glam week of screenings and soirées every December attracts absurd A-listers, from Jessica Chastain and Martin Scorsese to Marion Cotillard and Viggo Mortensen. (festivalmarrakech.info/en)
  • 154 Contemporary African Fine art Fair every February offers perfect conditions alongside a raft of exhibitions, talks and parties, attended by international artists, curators and collectors. (one-54.com)
  • La Suspension Camel treks, dinners with local musicians, acrobats and fire dancers are just some of the fun when you overnight in a tent at this rustic-chic camp in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, 40 minutes from town. (lapause-marrakech.com)

A version of this article appeared in the November/December 2019 issue with the headline, "Marrakech Limited," p. 120-125.

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