Yves Saint Laurent luxury – my stay at the French fashion designer’s Moroccan home

At Tangier’s Villa Mabrouka, revamped by new owner Jasper Conran into a boutique hotel, our fashion editor swapped shopping for soaking up the Moroccan sun by the pool...

The plunge pool at Villa Mabrouka in Morocco. Photo: Andrew Montgomery

Bairbre Power

To own a piece of clothing designed by fashion legend Yves Saint Laurent is a dream for many. Visiting the museum in his couture house in Paris provides a peek into his career. But to have the opportunity to stay in the couturier’s last home — now that is a privilege I never thought I would have.

Villa Mabrouka in Tangier, Morocco, is a secluded sanctuary that was shared by fashion legends Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Bergé, for almost a decade. Perched high in the clifftops, Saint Laurent liked nothing more during the lazy summer months he spent there than to relax and read in the sunshine, listen to opera, or the birdsong, take a mint tea and view the sparkling Strait of Gibraltar and the boats coming and going from Spain.