Soon after his show at London Fashion Week in February, Jasper Conran made his way to Tangier, Morocco. The veteran British designer, who counted Princess Diana among his clients, first visited the country in the 1980s, describing the city of Marrakech as "a place to come back to year after year — not least when it's grey in London". In 2016, Conran transformed a 19th-century riad into the boutique L'Hotel Marrakech, staying there himself for large parts of the year.
Last month in Tangier, Conran spent some time at antiques dealer Gordon Watson's "wonderful treasure house".
This wasn't the only other reason for Conran's visit, though; he also bought himself one of the port city's most famous houses: Villa Mabrouka, the former residence of Yves Saint Laurent, another designer who called the country home.
Villa Mabrouka
Perched atop a cliff edge staring out across the Strait of Gibraltar and five minutes out of downtown Tangier, Villa Mabrouka is also known as the House of Luck. The property's understated architecture and colonial feel are softened with a liberal wash of chintz furnishings, surrounded by a mix of rolling lawns and delicate pavilions.
Yves Saint Laurent bought the villa in 1998 with his long-time business partner Pierre Bergé, from Sheikha Fatima bint Fahad bin Salem Al Sabah of Kuwait. The simple decor was fashioned by interior designer Jacques Grange. "It was like decorating a house for people out of a play by Tennessee Williams," Grange has said. "We based it on the house of an eccentric Englishman who moved to Tangier in the 1950s."
Each room is dominated by a single colour, from pastel yellows to blues. Other features include imported lemon trees, a swimming pool carved into the rock and fountains designed by landscape gardener Madison Cox. Saint Laurent used the property as more of a private retreat than an entertaining venue, allowing him a slower pace of life than the frantic bustle of Paris.
Conran bought the villa from the Fondation Jardin Majorelle, and the proceeds from the sale will go towards the non-profit organisation and the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech.
Fondation Jardin Majorelle
Saint Laurent and Bergé came across Jardin Majorelle in the 1960s; the garden was the brainchild of French artist Jacques Majorelle.
"We quickly became very familiar with this garden, and went there every day," Bergé wrote in the book Yves Saint Laurent: A Moroccan Passion. "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 [its] owners."
The garden is now part of the Fondation Jardin Majorelle, which was established in 2011.
In October 2017, a museum celebrating Saint Lauren's career, designs and life opened just up the road from Jardin Majorelle, alongside one in Paris. The Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech spans more than 4,000 square metres, and features an exhibition space, a research library, bookshop and cafe. A reported 50 couture outfits are on show at any given time, while the library holds thousands of books on fashion, Yves Saint Laurent and Berber culture.
The museum was established to safeguard the couturier’s legacy and, by buying Villa Mabrouka, Conran will contribute to its upkeep.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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When Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi
Known as The Lady of Arabic Song, Umm Kulthum performed in Abu Dhabi on November 28, 1971, as part of celebrations for the fifth anniversary of the accession of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan as Ruler of Abu Dhabi. A concert hall was constructed for the event on land that is now Al Nahyan Stadium, behind Al Wahda Mall. The audience were treated to many of Kulthum's most well-known songs as part of the sold-out show, including Aghadan Alqak and Enta Omri.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Most F1 world titles
7 — Michael Schumacher (1994, ’95, 2000, ’01 ’02, ’03, ’04)
7 — Lewis Hamilton (2008, ’14,’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20)
5 — Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57)
4 — Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89, ’93)
4 — Sebastian Vettel (2010, ’11, ’12, ’13)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
