As a collector, stylist, art lover and gypsy, I travel for work, inspiration and of course pleasure. When travelling for any of these reasons, I always choose to stay in hotels that are not only imbued with great style, but also with fascinating histories. Modern hotels, no doubt, may be more conveniently located, with a lift directly to your room, (highly beenficial when carrying a suitcase filled with treasures from sourcing on the road), but the lure of a boutique hotel with its own unique character, stories and charms, is always irresistable. Upon arrival in small boutique hotels you can often feel it, it's embedded in the patinated walls, and at the hotel bar where you can feel the presence of past guests and the energy of bygone soirees.
CHECKING IN - VILLA MABROUKA, TANGIER
For me it's a no-brainer, I wall always choose soul over modernity and mod cons. But with a growing number of like-minded travellers and hoteliers, many hotels and residences, across the globe, are being thoughtfully restored and reimagined, offering upgraded amenities without sacrificing their essence and core aesthetic appeal. Top of this list is the recently opened Villa Mabrouka in Tangier.
On one of my recent sourcing trips, I was lured back to Tangier, a city I had visisted 9 years previously. I was eager to explore the city further but also to bed down in the recently refurbished home of celebrated designer Yves Saint Laurent and partner, Pierre Berge, Villa Mabrouka.
Built amongst one of the largest private gardens in Tangier, just beyond the Kasbah, Villa Mabrouka or ‘House of Luck’ is a Moorish- Iberian, modernist mansion built in the 1940s, and a stunning expression of eastern and western aesthetics. Back in the 1990s, the villa was the summer house and ‘love nest’ of Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé, who were drawn to the bohemian nature and vibrancy of the city. Yves employed French designer, Jacques Grange, to redecorate and reinvigorate the interiors, with a vision to create an enclave inspired by a British eccentric living in Tangier in the 1950s. Yves wanted chintz and requested that each room be a different colour. The gardens were equally important, providing a tranquil oasis filled with pavilions, fountains, trees and exotic plants, birdsong, and boasting water views out over the palm tops to the strait and the North Atlantic beyond.
Fast forward to 2019, when visionary British designer, Jasper Conran, purchased Villa Mabrouka, from Marrakesh’s Fondation Jardin Majorelle, and began his own inspired project to restore the house and grounds, and create the boutique hotel it is today. In line with Yves’s original concept, each of the 12 suites and rooms feature one main colour palette, per room, and Conran has successfully maintained the beautiful balance of Moroccan architecture and design, with European sensibility. Within the villa, each space feels artfully considered and isn’t just aesthetically pleasing to the eye, it offers the utmost comfort too. And while the hotel feels extremely intimate, it simultaneously offers guests a high level of privacy, which is no mean feat. To have achieved this degree of peace, privacy and harmony, and yet be just steps to the vibing Kasbah- a historic old fortress and one of the most exciting parts of Tangier- is one of Villa Mabrouka’s greatest drawcards! When you wander the villa’s grounds, you feel as though you’re in the calm space of an elegant home, yet the thrill of the famed El Morocco Club, where you can drink, dine and dance, well into the night, is only minutes from the sanctuary of the villa.
A stay at Villa Mabrouka is like stepping back into a distant, romantic past, yet keeping a foot firmly in the present. Conran has created a world where you’re at once transported to glamorous 1940s Tangier, while still savouring all the modern luxuries you’d expect of a contemporary, world-class hotel. The gateway to Africa, Tangier may be having a renaissance as a city, but it feels as though Villa Mabrouka is having its own moment, and rightly so, blossoming into a destination unto itself!