Portside Perfection

Layered with collectables from around the world, the Tangier holiday home of designers Hervé van der Straeten and Bruno Frisoni is a space that creates calm, yet also stimulates and inspires

- Ian Phillips

Having wanted a place by the sea, French furniture designer Hervé van der Straeten and his husband, designer Bruno Frisoni, had set their sights on the Amalfi Coast in Italy. They were not looking for a house in Tangier. They weren’t even particularly thinking of Morocco. Everything changed, however, when they spent a few days with friends in the northern Moroccan port city and discovered a home for sale on the edge of the medina – the walled ‘old city’.

The structure itself was not especially appealing. It was simple – painted blue and yellow – and had a ‘labyrinth of small rooms’ inside. Its location, however, was unbeatable. ‘There’s really the charm of the medina,’ says Hervé. ‘It’s an area where there are lots of crafters – copper workers and people making djellabas or wooden furniture by hand.’ It also has impressive views. ‘It’s a little like the bow of a boat,’ he says. ‘From it, you can see the port and the beach.’

And it is situated right next to the Sidi Hosni palace, which famously belonged to eccentric American heiress Barbara Hutton. She spent her summers there from 1947 to 1975, during which time she would organise annual balls, flying musicians in for the occasion from far-flung destinations such as the Caribbean and Mexico. She also had a custom-made Rolls Royce specially manufactured to be narrow enough to navigate the medina’s alleyways, and would sometimes greet guests on a throne.

Hervé and Bruno are fortunately not so grand, but they could well be considered as design royalty. Bruno, a shoe designer, is best known for being the creative director of Roger Vivier – a role he held for some 16 years before leaving the company recently. His celebrity fans while there included the likes of Cate Blanchett, Catherine Deneuve and Lady Gaga.