24/03/2025
I have always been enormously drawn to the architecture and interior design found in Northern Africa and across India and southern Europe. Certain architectural spaces make me feel creative, contemplative, emotional, peaceful, and at the core I truly believe space has enormous potential to open one’s soul to infinite creative possibilities. My travels through Morocco were extremely formative to my design work. I found in the architecture a personal humming towards my own true sense of design that resonated deeply. Bold dimensions, majestic lines, curves and archways, deep turquoise earthen tiles that were parred back, and yet told a thousands stories and counting. We found roads & hidden courtyard cafes where we marvelled at the beauty of these environments, one more breathtaking than the next, often flanked with orange and olive trees. We ate like kings and felt beautiful and exotic and free. This design aesthetic has influenced everything I have done, including my new fashion brand by Elly. Lines that tell stories in their simplicity of form. Seen here, Jnane Rumi, a beautiful estate in Marrakech owned by Gert-Jan Van den Bergen and his wife Corinne, originally designed in the mid century by architect Charles Boccara and later expanded with the help of architect Nicholas Bode is an excite example of timeless design. How fantastic it would be to sit there, with a strong coffee, a warm breeeze, wearing the sumptuous by Elly Maci Dream Dress with someone you love 😉
