Clockwise: Tagine pots from Fez, Morocco; Claude Daste-Rosinsky in full regalia; Spanish doors with a strong Moorish content separate the entry hall from the living areas.
Under the lavender sky of twilight, the scene unfolds like a chapter from The Thousand and One Nights. The courtyard floor is lined with Oriental carpets and kilims, piled randomly on top of one another, their blues, reds and khakis exploding in a riot of color. Low tables topped with engraved brass trays are surrounded by leather stools decorated with moucharabieh fretwork. Candles glow inside hammered metal lanterns, casting a shimmering reflection onto the still waters of the pool. The evening air is redolent of cinnamon and cumin. This could easily be the interior garden of a riad in Marrakech, but in fact it is in the heart of Palm Beach. The mise en scène is staged for a Moroccan-themed party, but the home itself—a courtyard house in the Spanish-Mediterranean tradition with Moorish undertones, designed by Marion Sims Wyeth in 1927—intentionally lives like a riad year-round. It’s perfectly à propos considering its owner: Claude DasteRosinsky, a Frenchwoman born and raised in Rabat, Morocco. Morocco, with its ornate palaces and ancient medinas, always has informed Rosinsky’s sensibility. Even as she made her way around the world working for the 64
PALM BEACH ILLUSTRATED