In our 20s, my best friend and I had a system: book 47F aisle and window, manifest that no one took the middle, and voilà — economy turned into our personal first-class pod. We’d gab non-stop until the dinner trays came clattering down, drink too much red wine, pop a Zanzi, and wake up in Paris like nothing happened. We called it office hours — our favorite time to catch up, spill, scheme, and dream, midair.
So, in the spirit of those airborne therapy sessions, I’m kicking off this new series: a space to sit down with people I admire, people I love, and people I’m just wildly curious about. Same energy — more space and better wine.
In today’s edition of Cool friends doing COOL things -
You know that saying, right place, right time? That’s kind of how I feel about my life in Cape Town. For some reason, my stars aligned in a way that was just meant to be; and one of the biggest reasons for that alignment is Kara.
We met when she was heading up Gorgeous George, the first Design Hotel in Cape Town. The hotel was six months from launch with no real marketing strategy in place, and (in true princess fashion) I told them exactly what they needed to do. Before I’d even left the building, Kara turned to her team and said, “Hire her. We need her.” And that was that.
Fast forward six years, a pandemic, a few too many sleepless nights, and a whole lot of fun later we co-founded Happy Go Lucky, our creative studio-slash-problem-solving-machine. From Morocco to Namibia, Zimbabwe to Saudi, Uruguay, Argentina , we’ve had our hands (and hearts) in building some truly special hotels. We’ve learned the hard way what burnout feels like, how to set boundaries, and what it really means to create with integrity; all while somehow having a really damn good time doing it.
Originally from Pretoria and raised in Cape Town, Kara is the definition of South African; all heart, hospitality, and that effortless warmth that makes you feel instantly at home. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to be invited to one of her “casual” dinner parties, you’ll know she can style a table in her sleep; perfectly selected linens, candles set at just the right height, music just so; all while making it look (and feel) completely effortless.
Whether she’s in the bush, behind a design board or in her favorite (my nightmare…), a construction site- she brings the same soulful eye for detail to everything she touches.
Her true gift? The way she layers spaces and moments with warmth, texture, and story. It’s what makes every room she creates feel lived in, loved, and somehow already familiar.
This week on Office Hours, Kara and I talk about working together, doing the impossible and having fun while doing it.
From opening hotels in Saudi Arabia during Covid to why beige needs to die, Kara and I cover creativity, burnout, design, entrepreneurship, and the projects that shaped us.
