Marrakech: a tale of ethnic chic table setting in the Peacock Pavilions dining tent

I conjure up a lot of table settings at Peacock Pavilions in Marrakech and they don't have too much in common with the ones I see in Crate & Barrel catalogues.  Rather, they tend to follow my own brand of ethnic chic, which often involves goods procured in foreign lands mixed with wild abandon.  

Here the flowers from my own rose garden. {These roses smell sublime.}  My vases:  glass Spanish mineral water bottles.

Add in a very long length of nomadic handmade, hand dyed fabric (which is actually Mauritanian dress, worn a bit like a sari). Indian dagmar votives.

Place on top, hand carved lacy placemats/chargers from Indonesia. Custom embroidered peacock feather napkins.

More pattern?  No problem. Bench cushions covered in the embroidery of the Moroccan city of Fez pattern. 

Repeat in multiples, bien sur.

Setting:  Arabian dining tent at Peacock Pavilions.

If possible, add in guests traveling from Tokyo, France, Brazil and the US.

When are you coming?

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PS Amy, this post is for you. Thank you for the good juju you bring. xo

Marrakech: and a tale of Designers Martin Raffone & Bill McIntosh's courtyard house cocktails

Yes, they have an apartment in New York and spend a month each year in St. Barts. And yes they take care of clients in Hong Kong while sourcing art in Barcelona.  

But best yet......they have a courtyard house, hundreds of years old, smack in the middle of the Marrakech medina or old city.  They renovated it from oceans away because that's what one does when you're New York designers Martin Raffone & Bill McIntosh, right?  

And now the renovation is all done.........And it's time for a little cocktail party with gin nestled among the roses. 

More roses in the kitchen (right next to Peacock Pavilions own olive oil).

Here I am with adorable Martin.

And here's Bill. (Check him out without a beard here - ridiculously handsome.)

There were swanky French locals at this cocktail party (ah yes, the kind married to former French TV stars, bien sûr.)

And as for the courtyard house itself.......... New York ethnic chic.....  But I can only give you a sneak peek  (just in case a design magazine wants to shoot it this very week.)

Did I mention that I got home at 2am?  Just a cocktail or two.....?

PS What about you?  Can you imagine buying a courtyard house in Marrakesh?  

Mali: and a tale of my clients

My grandmother never really understood my job.  I'd explain it to her over and over again but a perplexed look would still come over her face.  Nonetheless, she'd brightly exclaim encouraging somethings like, Well that certainly sounds useful!  But I could tell she never got it.

I once met a woman at a cocktail party.  She told me she was in Morocco on a research assignment.  I pressed her for more details and she gave me the look of someone who had been avoiding questions.  Then she answered that she was studying mule sperm {!}.  Frankly, I think my grandmother would have been satisfied with that answer:-)

I'm currently working in Mali on a civic education project funded by USAID; the project touches over a million people.  We partner with community radio hosts and traditional communicators (professional story tellers and messengers) to promote messages of peace, tolerance, women's participation and good citizenship.

Here is a glimpse of some of my partners and project beneficiaries.

Have you ever been to Mali?  To Africa?  Would you want to go?  

Mali: and a tale of beauty and architecture

I’ve never been a fan of Bamako.  The streets caked with dirt, the piles of torn plastic bags, the pollution.  Almost comical is the ubiquitous 1970s-style overstuffed furniture sitting by the side of the main streets – waiting, waiting to be sold to lovers of brown velour.

No, I’ve always preferred to get out of the Malian capital and drive hours away.  There you can see clusters of tidy huts, fascinating in their organic precision. 

Or buildings with elements of Malian grandeur– spires and towers. 

Or perhaps most beautiful yet, the carved structures,brutalist and yet elegant with their sinuous lines and geometric cut outs. 

Can you imagine {really} living differently than you do?  In a yurt?  A camel hair tent? A mud hut?  The world through those windows might be so different.

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PS Just a few days left for free shipping on carpets & textiles at Red Thread Souk.  Take advantage of it while you can!