Palm Heights Opens a Boutique Centering Caribbean Diaspora Designers

Palm Heights never does anything by half measures. Fashion’s favorite tropical boutique hotel has 52 suites facing the pristine white sands of Grand Cayman’s Seven Mile Beach, a museum-worthy 20th-century furniture collection that includes unique pieces by Marcel Breuer and Ettore Sottsass, an Olympic-caliber gym, and a chef who performs Frank Sinatra standards. So it should come as no surprise that the resort’s new concept store, Dolores, is a destination in itself.

Shana Trajanoska

“It doesn’t feel like you’re going into a hotel gift shop that only sells beach wraps,” says Diotima designer Rachel Scott, who co-hosted the Dolores grand opening weekend.

Inside the airy space, just off Palm Heights’ central breezeway, you’ll find a mix of artisanal fashion and home pieces including Diotima web crochet dresses, Isa Boulder ruched bikinis, Sophie Buhai baroque pearl necklaces, Port Tanger oversize sunglasses, De La Jardin paper clay vessels, and Helle Mardahl cocktail coupes. Even the pareo selection features a custom Christopher John Rogers gradient dot print.

The clean beauty offerings include Costa Brazil natural fragrances and Charlotte Mensah manketti oil products for textured hair, and there’s plenty of Palm Heights merch. Dolores is the kind of curated multi-brand luxury experience that wouldn’t feel out of place in New York or Los Angeles, and is the brainchild of Palm Heights creative director Gabriella Khalil and fashion writer Marjon Carlos, who helped with the fashion edit.

The central seating area at Dolores

The store is named for one of the first guests at Palm Heights when the hotel opened in late 2019. “Dolores came and stayed for a month, and she just had this vibrance about her and lived life and enjoyed everything and connected with everyone,” recalls Khalil. “Her name became a catchphrase for the ethos we want the property to embody, as in ‘That’s so Dolores.’”

Carlos, Khalil, and Scott

Designers of the Caribbean diaspora have pride of place at Dolores, with Theophilio graffiti mini dresses and Diotima crystal mesh bralettes from Jamaican-born, New York–based designers Edvin Thompson and Scott sitting alongside tie-dye shirt dresses by Grace Wales Bonner, a Londoner of Jamaican heritage. Luar’s Raul Lopez, a New York designer who is of Dominican descent, and Jawara Alleyne, a London-based designer who grew up in the Cayman Islands, will also contribute pieces later this year.

A rack featuring designs by Caribbean diaspora designers including Diotima, Theophilio, and Wales Bonner

“Oftentimes Caribbean culture could get lost in the sauce at a resort,” says Carlos. “There’s a whole rich community here regardless of tourism, and so we’re making sure that we highlight that and celebrate it.”

Emmanuel and Scott

There was lots to celebrate during the Dolores opening weekend, especially when Scott’s girlfriend Chaday Emmanuel, founder of LGBTQ+ resource center Connek JA, led her up to the hotel’s fifth-floor balcony at sunset, got down on one knee, and presented her with a ring.

She said yes!

With 12 rose-cut floating diamonds symbolizing the date they first met—September 12—glistening in the magic-hour light, the store opening turned into an impromptu engagement party. Friends—including Scott’s business partner Shin Ae Lee, models Kareen Taylor, Krystle Wilson, Da’ani Jetton, and Rhamier Auguste, photographers Deirdre Lewis (a Bazaar contributor) and Don Brodie, chef DeVonn Francis, and curator Ashley James—cheered the happy couple from the beach.

Friends including Wilson, Francis, Jetton, Brodie, and Auguste congratulate the happy couple.

Scott’s reaction: “I thought it was a good weekend already!”

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