Casablanca and Vogue100 Celebrate Cannes Film Festival

Nothing captures “cool" quite like Casablanca. Founded in 2018 by Charaf Tajer, the label draws on the designer’s French and Moroccan heritage to create its distinctive, sun-soaked style. Over the past seven years, the colorful tailoring, frame bags, and viral sets have attracted a global fan base. The line fuses elegance with athleticism, loungewear with suiting, sex with silliness.

Before launching Casablanca, Tajer designed for Pigalle, the influential streetwear brand that helped disrupt traditional notions of luxury menswear. He also worked closely as a consultant for the late Virgil Abloh. His own collection now counts Naomi Campbell, Travis Scott, and Bella Hadid among its devotees.

At the famed Hôtel Martinez, Tajer—in partnership with Vogue100—hosted an intimate dinner to celebrate the Cannes Film Festival. For the duration of the festival, the Martinez serves as ground zero. Behind barricades, throngs of photographers wait in hopes of snapping stars. Screams from fans echo day and night. Yet the garden of Le Sud, the hotel’s acclaimed Mediterranean restaurant, was surprisingly tranquil. Tea lights were strung over the cypress trees. Falcons (yes, falcons, which the Martinez employs, to keep the gulls at bay) swooped surreally overhead. Candles cast a glow over the long table, which was covered in white orchids and other exotic flowers. Waiters circulated cocktails, blended with Cointreau to mirror the brand’s signature orange shade.

Tajer told GQ that “Casablanca is a lifestyle, a community.” The dinner embodied that community: international, talented, and young. In his bold pinstripe suit, Shuzo Ohira, a Japanese television star, looked every bit the idol. French actor Sayyid El Alami, acclaimed for his performance in And Their Children After Them (2024), kept a lower profile in a black baseball cap. Model and artist Lívia Nunes oozed party-girl allure in a lace mini dress printed with the Los Angeles skyline. American beauty Grace Elizabeth posed with her husband, Nicolas Krause, a German soccer player. Makeup artist and entrepreneur Patrick Ta, sleek in a dark suit, mingled with editors and creatives who filled the courtyard.

At last, attendees sat down to eat. Like the drinks, the menu reflected the brand’s vibrant palette. A fillet of Saint-Pierre, served in a bright orange sauce, followed a decadent burrata, painted green with local pesto. The feast concluded with a grapefruit tart, as pink as the brand’s summery silks.