I love Morocco – a place that has inspired many artists and creatives over the years, especially French-Algerian designer Yves Saint Laurent.
In 1966, Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé, traveled to Marrakech for the first time. While they were greeted by an entire week of rain, it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with Moroccan culture. “Before Marrakech, everything was black,” Saint Laurent famously said. “This city taught me color, and I embraced its light, its insolent mixes, and ardent inventions.” Saint Laurent would continue to return for decades to come, purchasing a property in Marrakech in 1980 and, 17 years later, buying a second villa atop a hill in Tangier overlooking the world-famous Strait of Gibraltar.
Elle Decor and Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris
Today, the Tangier clifftop hideaway that served as inspiration for Saint Laurent’s collections has opened its giant crenellated horseshoe-arched doors to the public. The new owner, British designer Jasper Conran, spent four years faithfully restoring the 1940s house and revealed it last month as a 12-suite hotel with sweeping terraces above verdant gardens and Tangier’s glittering sea.
Carrie x
