Out of Whole Cloth

For his next chapter, Italian designer Romeo Gigli has fashioned a hotel from his former home.

- Christine Muhlke

THOUGH HE'S BEEN out of the fashion industry for several decades, Romeo Gigli has reentered the conversation. The clothes that made him one of the biggest names in the 1980s-cocoon-shaped coats; tulip skirts-are finding new life on the luxury vintage market.

Meanwhile, the Milanese designer still experiments with color and form, but on a larger scale. Last year, he opened Riad Romeo (doubles from $198), a five-room hotel in the Marrakesh medina. Formerly his family vacation home, the property is a love letter to the city.

Gigli first visited Marrakesh in 1967. "I was 17, and it was my first time out of Europe," he says. "Morocco has been and will always be, for me, a gentle country, from its climate to the hospitality of its people." At the time, he was studying architecture, but on return trips throughout the 1970s to Marrakesh, as well to places like China and India, he discovered new passions, for art, jewelry, and the traditional clothing he encountered. "All of the images I recorded in my memory formed a creative melting pot," he says.