Get the look: Palm Heights, Grand Cayman

It’s no surprise that Palm Heights’ latest collaboration stars Marrakech-based beachwear brand Marrakshi Life, since the city’s souks represent but one hotspot from where Khalil personally sourced trinkets and treasures for the hotel’s interiors. Attracted by the brand’s “easy glamour”, Khalil teamed up with Marrakshi Life to create a range of keepsake, beach-ready garbs for a gender-free wardrobe. These include a generous kaftan and matching oversized sunhat and, our favourite, camel and ecru-striped bathrobes – perfect whether you’re hopping out of the bath or out of the sea.

There’s the sun-soaked stretch of Seven Mile beach. There’s the electrifyingly artistic atmosphere and knock-out menus. But the other thing you’re going to remember about Palm Heights is the chairs. That’s right – Khalil’s chair collection would cause a stir at even the world’s most elite furniture auctions. With statement pieces from such famous designers as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Axel Enthoven and Pierre Paulin, it’s a who’s who of modernist design. Fancy recreating some 1970s-style lounging in your home? Try this serpentine Frank Gehry number on for size.

Believe it – the only thing more designer-drenched than the seating is the lighting. One of the hotel’s most recent artist residencies was filled by New York lamp-making luminary Eny Lee Parker, who spent her time on a collection of freestanding lampshades wielded from plaster cloth for Palm Heights’ interiors. In the Coconut Club, mushroom-domed lamps coordinate with the egg-yolk yellow parasols just beyond the bar, while the garden restaurant, Paradise Pizza, boasts dinky red table lights just like this mushroomy Pao model.

If ‘a good book’ is high on your Caribbean packing list, don’t bring one – the hotel has reading material to last a lifetime, never mind a holiday. From the coffee-table tomes that adorn your suite (copies will be switched in and out, depending on your tastes) to the blissfully air-conditioned bibliophile’s lounge, literature is part of the lifeblood of Palm Heights. It even has its own magazine shop, where you can borrow (or buy) vintage copies of Interview, Playboy and more. For now, head over to Phaidon to pick up some of the same titles that have inspired Gabriella.

Any furniture nerds out there will know the name Mario Bellini, aka godfather of the modern-day beanbag. The Italian starchitect and designer practically wrote the style guide for the 1970s elite – his low-slung, modular sofas becoming the must-have accessory of any house worth its design-savvy salt. You can find Bellini’s iconic Camaleonda (he only produced them for a few years) and Le Bambole sofas at Palm Heights. Out here in the real world, one might set you back some $20,000. This version we’ve found is pure retro, sunken sofa vibes at a fraction of the price.

When we say Palm Heights is a post-modernist pick and mix, we mean it, with references sprawling from the retro to the downright Neoclassical. Around the property, marble busts (you might even catch one wearing a floppy sunhat) are a tongue-in-cheek wave towards a more decadent European aesthetic and hint at another of the hotel’s visual footnotes, American artist David Ligare, whose dreamlike paintings depict elements from classical history. To recreate the decadent brunch set-up at Tillie’s, a bust is a must. And look out for the pair of life-size Grecian statues hidden by the pools.