Such life pivots are common here. Many who come on vacation decide to put down roots. French designer Stella Cadente decamped from Paris during the pandemic and in 2022 opened her eponymous concept store in the medina’s gentrifying Dar El Bacha quarter. The 1940s riad, now clad in shiny zellige tiles and lacquered Majorelle blue, includes a rooftop bistro. Few, however, have undertaken as much literal root planting as Aziz Nahas, the Casablanca-born former J.P. Morgan banker who, like many others, spent the pandemic rethinking his life goals and baking sourdough with his mom. Intense experimentation led respectively to Marrakech’s most sought-after crusty loaves and the flourishing of Nahas’s 25-acre Sanctuary Slimane, a regenerative farm, animal refuge, and artists’ residency in Marrakech’s southeastern suburbs. What grows there appears on the menu at his Blue Ribbon bakery, which opened last spring in the city’s hip Gueliz neighborhood. The adjacent Farm Slimane sells seasonal produce within an elegant Art Deco arcade, which will soon house a restaurant, a wine bar, and a Morocco-centric bookstore.
Refreshingly, this new Marrakech increasingly recognizes its homegrown creatives. Take medina-reared restaurateur Kamal Laftimi, whose Mediterranean-leaning Pétanque Social Club is the hottest dining address in town, stylishly designed within a 1930s building with frenzied graffiti by Moroccan painter Yassine Balbzioui. Then there is Sana Benzaitar, the daughter of a traditional rug merchant, whose Studio Sana Benzaitar sells fresh, one-of-a-kind creations. “I wanted to unite our centuries-old heritage with female-driven innovation,” Benzaitar explains as she points to an unconventional carpet of abstracted stepping stones, woven by Amazigh women in two Middle Atlas villages. “The women have been doing this so much longer than I have,” Benzaitar says of their partnership. “I encourage them to take risks.” The same holds true for Idries Karnachi, the ex–Studio KO architect whom Benzaitar directed to demolish and rebuild one of her gallery walls that now displays her trailblazing weavings. Karnachi has also been busy gathering experts to undertake culturally sensitive reconstruction in the old medina, the part of the city most damaged in the quake.
Anyone can participate in the recovery by visiting Marrakech, where tourism employs about 10 percent of the population. Open your wallet at places like De Bouche à Oreille for handmade tapestries by a regional women’s cooperative. Or visit the El Fenn Boutique, where you can scoop up En Shalla totes upcycled from industrial food bags and embroidered by local women, along with a Patrice Kouadio caftan, whose floaty, floor-length silhouette—like those originally turned out by Saint Laurent—feels like an homage to this vibrant melting pot.
This article appeared in the January/February 2024 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here.
