Even after six years of living in Morocco, I still find it exotic. It's one of those places where a single encounter or image can fuel my imagination for hours, if not days. Perhaps that's part of the reason why my family and I decided to pick up everything and move to Morocco in the first place - a decision that put us on a tiled path that wound its way to the magical city of *Marrakesh* and to the little olive grove that we now call home.
And if I am intrigued by Morocco now, I can only imagine what it used to be like fifty or a hundred years ago. Recently, my father gifted me with a first edition of the book, Costumes du Maroc by Jean Besancenot. Inside hides a secret world.
An artist, Besancenot came to Morocco for the first time in the 1930s and it was here that he did the 60 illustrations that are found in his beautiful book. He writes of his fascination with the artful blending of cultures that make up Morocco's identity - the combination of Middle Eastern, European and Amazigh influences. I think it's this very intermingling that makes Morocco and Moroccans so special; so evident in the country's architecture and design sense, as well as in the ways people live, think, and dress.
Of course, not all Moroccan clothing is the same as it once was. There is very little that separates the look of teenagers in Marrakesh or in Paris. But sometimes when I find myself lost in the meandering alleys of the Marrakesh old city, or medina, I can still see glimpses of the Morocco that Jean Besancenot saw almost 75 years ago. Let me take you there with me today.
