LUXURY

Rue Yves Saint Laurent looks much like any other street in Marrakech’s “ville nouvelle” – if ever so slightly less dusty and dishevelled. It is only as you head up the road, away from the tooting horns of Avenue Yacoub El Mansour, a busy thoroughfare that transects this part of the city, and slip into the gates of Jardin Majorelle, that it becomes clear how special Rue Saint Laurent really is. To escape into Jardin Majorelle’s shaded, cobalt-blue environs is to find an oasis of greenery and quiet in a city desperately lacking in both. It is not difficult to understand why Yves Saint Laurent fell in love with it.

The famed fashion designer first visited Marrakech in 1966 with his partner Pierre Bergé, the famed co-founder of the Yves Saint Laurent brand who passed away on September 8. They were greeted with a week’s worth of rain. But once the sun came out and they ventured out from La Mamounia hotel’s legendary confines, Saint Laurent became captivated by the city, entranced, in particular, by the quality of the light that washed over it. He would go on to write of the city’s “benevolent pink magic”.

By the end of that trip, he had bought a house there and would return regularly for the remainder of his life. It has been described as “an exceptional case of love at first sight”.

In many ways, Saint Laurent was returning to his roots. He was born in Algeria in 1936, enjoying a privileged upbringing in the port city of Oran. “Oran, a cosmopolis of trading people from all over, and mostly from elsewhere, a town glittering in a patchwork of all colours under the sedate North African sun. It was a good place to be well off, and we were well off. My summers swept by as if mounted on clouds, at a villa on a beach, where my relatives and friends with similar roots formed an enclave,” the designer said in 1983.

It was a world of wealth, coloured by that colonial tendency to romanticise the motherland, so Saint Laurent always had one foot in North Africa and the other firmly in France. “There were many lovely dinner parties at our comfortable house in town, and I can still see my mother, about to leave for a ball, come to kiss me goodnight, wearing a long dress of white tulle with pear-shaped white sequins,” he recalled.

Long after he moved to Paris and found fame, creating couture for Christian Dior and then his own eponymous brand, Saint Laurent would return to Oran for a few weeks before each show, working on new designs at his old desk, and returning to his atelier in Paris with a suitcase full of sketches. In 1962, after Algeria’s independence, Saint Laurent’s parents, Charles and Lucienne, and sisters, Brigitte and Michèle, moved to Paris, leaving most of their possessions behind and relying on him to rent them a tiny apartment. The ladies of the family were able to adapt to Parisian life, but Charles was filled with longing for the life he had left behind. Perhaps his son felt the same, and found a substitute in Morocco.

In Marrakech, he could stroll anonymously through the souqs of the old city, taking inspiration from the colours and clothes. The city had yet to be tainted by mass tourism, and was avant-garde enough to attract the likes of Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones and French philosopher Michel Foucault, who had been visiting since the 1960s.

It was also during that first trip to Marrakech that Saint Laurent and Bergé came across Jardin Majorelle. The garden was the brainchild of French artist Jacques Majorelle, son of the famous furniture designer Louis Majorelle. Much like Saint Laurent, but 50 years earlier, Majorelle visited Marrakech and was immediately bewitched by the city. In 1923, he bought a four-acre plot on a palm grove on the outskirts of Marrakech, which promptly grew to 10 acres. He commissioned architect Paul Sinoir to design a cubist villa on the grounds, and set up a studio on the first floor. A passionate amateur botanist, Majorelle created an incredible garden surrounding the villa, which would ultimately become his life’s work.

“We quickly became very familiar with this garden, and went there every day,” Bergé wrote in the book Yves Saint Laurent: A Moroccan Passion. “It was open to the public yet almost empty. We were seduced by this oasis where colours used by Matisse were mixed with those of nature … And when we heard that the garden was to be sold and replaced by a hotel, we did everything we could to stop that project from happening. This is how we eventually became owners of the garden and of the villa. And we have brought life back to the garden through the years.”

As it was then, the garden today is a maze of shaded lanes and towering trees. Bamboo thickets nudge against enormous cacti; birds flit from the treetops; and burbling streams lead to pools laden with lotus flowers and water lilies. At the heart of the garden stands a building in vibrant blue.

Saint Laurent came here twice a year to design his haute couture collections. On June 1 and December 1, he would travel to Marrakech for two weeks at a time, and it is here that he found the space, clarity and inspiration to create. The city’s influence can be seen in the clothes themselves, as the designer drew from local fashions, crafts and colours, and by the billowing silhouettes of the jalabiya and the burnous cape. It is often said that it was here that he “discovered colour” and there are obvious examples: a cape in silk faille embroidered with bougainvillaea flowers from his spring/summer 1989 haute couture collection; the burnished orange and hot pinks of a silk-satin off-the-shoulder dress from his autumn/winter 1987 collection; and the elaborate turbans sported by many of his models.

“In Morocco, I realised that the range of colours I use was that of the zelliges, zouacs, djellabas and caftans. The boldness seen since then in my work, I owe to this country, to its forceful harmonies, to its audacious combinations, to the fervour of its creativity. This culture became mine, but I wasn’t satisfied with just absorbing it; I took, transformed and adapted it,” he said.

Saint Laurent’s life in Morocco was captured in an iconic shoot for the August 1980 issue of Vogue, by the legendary photographer Horst P Horst. One particular image sees a handsome Saint Laurent reclining in the grounds of Jardin Majorelle, surrounded by all the accoutrements of a traditional Arabic home – colourful Berber rugs in shades of rust red, deep yellow, orange and green; floor cushions emblazoned with geometric patterns in rich shades of turquoise and pink; and oversized platters and bowls brimming with brightly coloured citrus fruits. Jardin Majorelle was the site of key events in Saint Laurent’s life – and after he passed away on June 1, 2008, in Paris, his ashes were scattered in the garden. A memorial was set up here, in the form of a Roman pillar on a pedestal with a plate bearing his name.

Saint Laurent’s ties to Marrakech are to be further cemented next month when, 51 years after the designer first visited the city, a museum celebrating his career, designs and life will open just up the road from Jardin Majorelle. An initiative by the Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent, which was established to safeguard the couturier’s legacy, the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech will span more than 4,000 square metres, and feature a permanent exhibition space, a temporary exhibition gallery, research library, auditorium, bookshop and cafe. A reported 50 couture outfits will be on show in the Morrocan city at any given time, while the library will hold a reported 6,000 books on fashion, Yves Saint Laurent and Berber culture.

“I don’t think that people fully understand that the upcoming Yves Saint Laurent museum is not just any other fashion museum; it is the largest cultural project happening in Morocco,” says Stephen di Renza, creative director for retail operations at Jardin Majorelle, who visited Abu Dhabi earlier this year. “There will be temporary galleries for different exhibitions. Pierre Bergé owns the largest collection of Moroccan and Andalusian manuscripts, which will be available for reference. There is an amphitheatre for symposiums. And at the moment, we are discussing what kinds of cultural programming we’ll have – the idea is to have music, dance, arts etc.”

With its clear, uncluttered lines, the architecture of the museum echoes Saint Laurent’s work. And its opening on October 19 will come a couple of weeks after the launch of another Yves Saint Laurent museum in Paris, in the pre-existing Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent at 5 Avenue Marceau. That this remarkable designer will be honoured by two museums is a mark of the impact that he had on fashion in the 20th century, but is also, arguably, a sign of the rising stature of fashion as an art form in itself. Either way, much like it did in his collections, Marrakech will take centre stage.

Nicholas Kirkwood is no stranger to luxury collaborations. In the past, the celebrated British footwear designer has created calf leather loafers for Erdem, bow-embellished velvet pumps for Roksanda and suede Oxfords for Peter Pilotto. Now, for the first time, Kirkwood is applying his signature architectural and graphic design style to a handbag. But not to any old purse: to Bulgari’s iconic Serpenti Forever.

The resultant four-piece capsule collection, which is available in select boutiques from this month, features a sinuous chevron pattern designed to reflect the lithe movements of the serpent, a recurring Bulgari motif since the 1960s. The zigzagging lines are a striking move away from the original bag’s structured shape, and are rendered bolder still for their use of colour: pink spinel, royal sapphire, bright gold and stark monochrome. The richly textured calf leather further evokes the snake’s scales, while an enamelled snakehead clasp glints with gemstone-inspired eyes.

“The serpenti motif has such an interesting design ethos behind it, which is what I love about the collection,” says Kirkwood. “In mythology, the serpent represents sublime perception, transformation, immortality and, best of all, fertility. Who knows what will happen when you wear this handbag?”

Kirkwood also used various types of rubberised studs with faceted ends, which he says reminded him of the “diamond settings and spectacular gemstones [he] saw at the Bulgari high-jewellery atelier”. It was a visit to the atelier last year, where he observed Bulgari’s master craftsmen bringing one-of-a-kind pieces to life, that sparked the collaboration in the first place.

This was followed by Bulgari’s SerpentiForm exhibition in the Museum of Rome, where Kirkwood was able to appreciate how the snake motif has inspired a number of artists, sculptors, filmmakers and photographers through the ages. Apparently, he also realised that the house’s aesthetic was perfectly in keeping with his own penchant for boldness, and for blending unconventional colours, patterns and materials together. The ornamentation on the Serpenti Forever capsule collection, for instance, is a seemingly erratic combination of flat, round and pyramidal studs, both varnished and matte. The sleek clasp, too, gets an update – interpreted as it is in a two-tone palette.

The limited-edition bags are available in four styles: a backpack, shoulder bag, wallet and an envelope clutch. Kirkwood has said that this first foray into designing bags felt like a natural move for him, and he hopes to offer more than footwear from his eponymous brand in the future. The collection is currently available at select Bulgari boutiques around the world including those in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

It’s always tough staying ahead of the fashion curve, and those wanting to stand out from the crowd this autumn/winter, are going to have to really up their accessories game, because the latest It bag or shoe du jour is no longer good enough. For those wanting to break the internet this season, the new must-have is an offspring, wearing the same outfit as you.

Welcome to the age of the mini-me.

Taking its name from Austin Powers’s tiny doppelgänger, this trend for twinning with the children has been steadily building in popularity. Fuelled by celebrity parents such as Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé, coupled with a seemingly insatiable need to post our lives all over social media, more and more of us are getting matchy-matchy with the kids.

In the digital age, small clothes are big business. A report by Global Industry Analysts, entitled Children’s Wear: A Global Strategic Business Report, predicts that the childrenswear market will be worth $US291 billion (Dh1.06 trillion) by the end of 2020. The report cited the increasing number of luxury labels catering to this segment as a key growth driver.

As Candice Fragis, buying and merchandising director at Farfetch.com, explains: “Our customers love the mini-me factor – kids’ styles that match a piece or print from a brand’s ready-to-wear line are some of our most popular items. For example, we recently launched Dubai-based label Bambah’s new children’s range, Little Bambah, which offers 24 mini-me pieces pulled from adult collections. The designer, Maha Abdul Rasheed, launched the line in response to overwhelming demand from mothers requesting matching outfits for their little ones. I think that social media can definitely be credited with influencing this type of shopping behaviour. The popularity of our mini-me kidswear styles is likely fuelled by the allure of capturing that perfect Insta-moment.”

As with every industry, fashion relies on profit margins and market expansion for continued growth. As womenswear reaches saturation point, brands are looking to move into other, less crowded segments, and childrenswear is ripe for the picking. Of course, the fact that children are literally still growing is a boon for companies, as this is an audience that is constantly in need of new things. It is also, in theory, a way of instilling brand loyalty from a very young age.

Traditionally, the majority of a child’s outfits were bought by mothers, with practicality in mind, while expensive, more frivolous clothes were purchased by extended family looking to lavish attention on a child. Now, mothers are also “investing” in those high-cost items, apparently willing to spend on a child’s wardrobe in the same way they spend on their own.

A key trendsetter in this particular arena is Blue Ivy Carter, the 5-year-old daughter of pop royalty Beyoncé and Jay Z, who has had a sizeable effect on what is deemed acceptable attire for the under-5s. Last summer, Blue Ivy and her mother wore matching Gucci sundresses in Paris, and opted for the label again for the premiere of Beauty and the Beast earlier this year. This time they wore matching green Gucci gowns, with the young Ms Carter’s dress retailing at Dh7,350. At the MTV VMA awards last year, meanwhile, Blue Ivy wore a Mischka Aoki princess dress that retails for Dh40,500, to complement her mother’s Francesco Scognamiglio couture gown.

Meanwhile, Kim and Kanye West’s daughter North, 4, and son Saint, 1, are already rumoured to be wearing custom-made Lagerfeld. Mind you, North was wearing child-sized Balmain long before it even existed. And last year, the then 3-year-old wore the same Vetements sequinned dress as her mother – all the more notable given that the brand’s creations are notoriously hard to get hold of. More recently, to attest to the fact that age is no barrier to twinning, Gwyneth Paltrow and her 74-year-old mother Blythe Danner stepped out in matching floral Prada ensembles.

While high-end children’s clothes are hardly a new idea – Christian Dior launched its Baby Dior line back in 1969 – having small versions of adult pieces is a much newer phenomenon. When British brand Burberry launched its children’s line in 2008, it offered a scaled-down version of its adult wear. And despite being slow to join the kids’s sector, both Balmain and Givenchy’s children’s lines, when they finally arrived this year, were almost direct facsimiles of what was seen on the autumn/winter 2017 ready-
to-wear runways.

The undisputed master of childrenswear, however, has to be Dolce & Gabbana, which has elevated clothes from sartorial swag to a statement of family devotion. Promoted as an essential part of the brand’s “Italian family heritage” philosophy, the brand has been building its children’s line as a complement to its adult range for the past two years, when it sent dresses emblazoned with the words “I love you mamma” down the runway.

This approach climaxed on the brand’s autumn/winter 2017 runway, when the show opened with the designer-model couple Jason and Amanda Harvey clutching their twins Noah and Rose, all dressed in head-to-toe matching feline prints. Far from being a flash-in-the-pan-trend, the mini-me movement seems to be gaining traction.

“The ‘mini-me’ trend is interesting because there is an emotional component to it – that moment of dressing up with your child is a real draw for some. Dolce & Gabbana has been very strategic with this, offering seasonal ‘mini-me’ printed styles that always perform well,” Fragis explains.

“For example, the brand’s lemon-print dresses and swimsuits sold out simultaneously on Farfetch in both women’s and kids sizes. I definitely think that the luxury childrenswear market will continue to develop – the potential for growth is massive.”

Van Cleef & Arpels

In jewellery, the circle represents love, trust and fidelity – that which is everlasting because it has no beginning and no end. Van Cleef & Arpels has looked to this symbol of eternity for two new designs for its Perlée collection, unadorned save for rows upon rows of beads encircling a bracelet and a ring. The individually polished gold beads are hand-placed across three or five curved rows, creating an opulent three-dimensional effect, while craftsmen also applied the house’s mirror-polishing technique to lend an iridescent sheen to the underside of the pieces. The bracelets are available in three sizes, and have a discrete clasp mechanism hidden under a single, larger bead. Gilded beads have appeared in the maison’s creations since the 1920s, initially by themselves and later paired with rubies, diamonds and pearls. The simplicity of the two new designs, though, is no less effective, because they embrace the 120-year-old maison’s tradition of superior craftsmanship. The circle continues.

Hermes

The Hermès Twilly silk scarf is a thing of great versatility: it can be wrapped around your head, tacked on to a handbag or, most famously, worn as a bow. Tutorials on how best to construct the playful Twilly bow are rampant on social media – that dynamic domain reigned over by stylish young women. It is to them that the house’s latest fragrance Twilly d’Hermès, by perfumer Christine Nagel, is dedicated. The scent is a twist of three ingredients: ginger, tuberose and sandalwood – an unusual combination, perhaps, but one that’s meant to reflect the free, cheerful and whimsical traits of youth. The colourful packaging comes expertly knotted like a scarf around the Twilly d’Hermès bottle, with a ribbon-tie of silk encircling the cap. Geneva-born perfume creator Nagel, who joined Hermès in 2014, is the nose behind such distinctive feminine fragrances as Galop d’Hermès and Eau des Merveilles Bleue for Hermès; plus Miss Dior Cherie, Dolce & Gabbana The One for Woman, Eau de Cartier, Chopard Madness and Versace Woman. Twilly d’Hermès is now available in-store and costs up to Dh565 for 85ml.

Fendi

Maleficent eyes are situated in the centre of a rounded-square, or cushion-shaped, face. The number 12 indicates that this is, in fact, a watch, although it doesn’t quite look the part. The Swiss-made timepieces are part of the latest Momento Fendi Bugs Cushion collection, and are available in two distinct designs, catering to two separate consumers: those who prefer a more classic approach to luxury, and those who favour a bolder, more daring aesthetic. The first is a two-tone bracelet model, combining rose gold with stainless steel, and the second features a black lacquered dial and calfskin leather strap, with yellow-toned eyes. Both designs are set with two diamonds in place of the pupils, and every minute, at the moment when the minute and seconds hand align, the iconic Fendi logo is formed by the layering of the two. While timepieces depicting the Fendi bug faces are not new to the luxury market, this is the first time that the watches are available in on-trend cushion shapes, since previous versions featured circular cases.

Dries Van Noten

The work of fashion designer Dries Van Noten is being celebrated with the launch of two unique books that document a colourful career spanning 26 years. Having reached the milestone of 100 fashion collections, the designer is the subject of two retrospective tomes by Lannoo Publishers, which will launch in October. Entitled simply Dries Van Noten 1-50, and Dries Van Noten 51-100, the two books document a career that began in 1991, and take readers on a visual journey through 2,000 unique images. Described by The New York Times as “one of fashion’s most cerebral designers”, and considered to be an icon in his hometown of Antwerp, Van Noten is known for his highly intellectual approach to design, as well as his vivid use of pattern and a magpie’s eye for mixing references. Much of the text accompanying the photographs is written by Susannah Frankel (AnOther Magazine) and Tim Blanks (The Business of Fashion), who provide valuable insight into the collections. Covering both menswear and womenswear, these books are a detailed look at the work of a unique talent, and a must-buy for every serious fashion aficionado.