destination marrakech; Hamish Bowles, in town for the film festival, unveils the city's hidden luxuries.

Byline: Hamish Bowles

During the Marrakech Film Festival, that fabled city turns more chic than boho, a transformation personified in the glamorous figure of the festival director, Melita Toscan du Plantier.

"I love this country," says Toscan du Plantier, who spends her summers in balmy Tangier. "And this is a great tool for communicating Morocco to the world beyond, by showing the country as it really is: modern, open, and peaceful." The festival was established in 2001 by her late husband, the charismatic French movie producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier, at the behest of Morocco's dynamic young King Mohammed VI, a film buff himself. "The festival has grown so quickly," she says. Last year, Sean Connery, Claudia Cardinale, and the great Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine were honored, and guests included Bollywood "goddess" Aishwarya Rai and Oliver Stone (whose epic Alexander was shot in Morocco). "Morocco is modernizing and growing," says Toscan du Plantier. "There is no censorship in either the selection or the showing of the movies." She won't have time, however, to see any of the films. Juggling two mobile phones, dealing with the unpredictable demands of movie stars and directors, festival officials, palace officials, and press, she barely has a moment to eat-let alone shop. But if anyone can handle the pressure, it is this formidable Serb.

Toscan du Plantier's scrupulously arranged closets at the legendary Art Deco Mamounia hotel are testament to her organizational skills, brimful of Vuitton, Lacroix, and Dior shoes. There is also a safeful of sparkling gewgaws by Cartier (for whom she is an ambassador). In short, Toscan du Plantier is the essence of faultlessly groomed Parisian chic.

But there are also sumptuous traditional caftans that Toscan du Plantier will wear to the opening-night ceremonies and the magical banquet out of A Thousand and One Nights given by the king the following day. And slim slub-silk coats, bordered in twisted silk hand embroidery, from Toscan du Plantier's favorite boutique in the crowded medina, Au Fil D'Or (10 Souk Semmarine; 011/212-44-445-919). The owner, Abdelali Chabi, also proffers translucent-cotton floor-length undershirts such as Charles I might have worn on the scaffold-perfect bikini cover-ups-and cardigan jackets in a cozy brushed cotton that he smilingly describes as "Moroccan cashmere" and that Marella Agnelli, in the throes of restoring a villa in the Palmeraie, orders with abandon.

Beldi (9-11 Souikat Laksour; 011/212-44-441-076) has elegant cardigan coats in fluid velvets or quirky sixties vintage cottons; Boujemaa (42-43 rue Rahba El Biadyne; ...