Based in Tucson, Ariz., the boutique Desert Vintage has specialized in rare designer clothing since Salima Boufelfel and Roberto Cowan took it over in 2012. Many of their offerings — a century-old Fortuny evening robe or an Azzedine Alaïa suede wraparound top, for example — “can be a bit demanding to wear,” says Boufelfel. So when she landed in New York to open their Orchard Street outpost in 2022, she set out to complement their period pieces with her own designs. The collection, which is named Ténéré (“desert” in Tuareg) in a nod to both Boufelfel’s Arizona origins and Berber heritage, is meant to be worn across seasons and settings: There are airy crinkled chiffon dresses, sleeveless caftans stitched with antique African trade beads and double-pleated Italian-linen trousers. The silk lounge sets — available in a range of sandy shades, as well as a poppy red — are modeled after Desert Vintage’s best-selling 1920s loungewear ensembles, which, Boufelfel notes, “always fly out the door and look amazing on everyone.”
A reason to visit Tucson: the UNESCO-worthy Mission Garden
07.05.2024 - 14:05 / lonelyplanet.com
A humble city that prides itself on its quirks, Tucson doesn’t first appear to be a place of global gastronomic notoriety.
But a closer look reveals that Arizona's second-largest city just may be one of the most important food destinations you’ll ever visit. Tucson is a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy – the only one in the US – thanks to its abundance of “heritage crops” that have sustained locals since time immemorial (more on this later) and its essentially Tucsonan flavors that have been shaped by people from around.
And there’s no place that will help you understand the soul of this town better than the Mission Garden, a living agricultural museum highlighting the bounty of the Sonoran Desert, the introduced crops that thrived here, and the culture these plants helped create.
This space is perhaps one of the most mindfully curated museums I’ve ever visited, and it’s more than just a lovely place for a stroll – this is a working garden that provides food to Indigenous elders, local chefs and Tucson charities, and it’s an outdoor classroom for those with a desire to cultivate their own relationship with the Sonoran Desert.
The Mission Garden is located in an area known as Cuk Ṣon, the Indigenous O'odham land from which the city of Tucson eventually emerged – when you step through its gates, you are entering sacred territory.
A large section of the garden is dedicated to the foods that have remained central to local Indigenous culture for thousands of years, and you can’t help but marvel as you wander the rows of towering corn stalks, spiky agave, striped squash and tiny-but-mighty tepary beans. How is it that all this grows in a desert? The answer: Tucson sits on an old floodplain with good soil, and the Indigenous people here have been meticulous in its care and preservation.
Cultural Outreach Liaison and Gardener, Meagan Lopez, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, emphasizes how important it is to keep these foodways alive, both for Indigenous people and for those who have come to Tucson.
“For the O’odham, I think it's really important to make these connections back again, because this is something that has been a part of our culture and our history for thousands of years, from the beginning of time.” she says. “It's important, for me anyway, to keep growing these foods and provide them to people who understand their value, who take the opportunity to taste it and share with others.”
And for Lopez, these plants do more than just nourish bodies – they’ve taught the O’odham important life lessons. Take agave for example, one of her favorite plants.
“It looks like something spiny and pointy. It looks very aggressive. But it's also very nutritious; it is very sweet,” says Lopez, smiling down at the
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