Beside economic investment, she credited the areaвЂ™s resurgence to the young diaspora moving back: people like Carolina Contreras, an influencer and founder of Miss Rizos, a blog and salon that encourages women to embrace their curls.

One morning, over cups of rich, tarthick Dominican coffee at the Casa del MacorГs, one of the houses in the Casas del XVI collection, I chatted with Amelia Vicini, whose family is responsible for the project as well as numerous other properties in the Zona. The star attraction right now is the two-bedroom, exclusive-use Casa del DiseГ±ador, a former home of de la Renta (other houses can be rented by the room). In the coming years, more houses-which, with their brick archways, terra-cotta floors, and wood-beamed ceilings, can take up to a year to renovate-will be added, so that the hotel will feel like a sort of mini village. You can get a feel for her eclectic, colorful work at Casas del XVI (rooms from $450 ), which consists of six colonial-era mansions in the Zona with features like open-air courtyards and pools. Reid is a master at mixing found objects from Bali and Morocco with mahogany furniture made in the Dominican Republic and then layering in her own paintings and drawings of nature. (Most business still takes place in the modern city center.) вЂњOne hundred years ago, this was the вЂinвЂ™ place to live,вЂќ explained Reid, who designed Julio IglesiasвЂ™s homes in Punta Cana and Marbella, Spain.

Interior designer Patricia Reid, longtime Zona resident and friend of Oscar de la Renta, has seen this area go in and out of fashion. Hundreds of 16th-century Spanish colonial buildings still stand here, now reimagined as contemporary shops, galleries, even hotels. вЂњThe architecture is inspiring,вЂќ she told me. She recently gave up her Manhattan apartment to live a more nomadic lifestyle, renting in Athens and the Zona, where sheвЂ™ll spend weeks at a time designing rattan furniture and scouting crafts. Like Mota, Mitsakos is an inveterate traveler. вЂњMost people donвЂ™t think of visiting Caribbean cities, but from a style standpoint, Santo Domingo is brimming with boutiques,вЂќ said Andria Mitsakos, founder of lifestyle brand Wanderlista, who produces furniture here. Which is somewhat of a surprise, given that itвЂ™s a four-hour flight from New York and the oldest European city in the Americas, established in 1496 by Bartholomeo Columbus (yes, brother of Christopher). IвЂ™ve been covering the Caribbean for years, yet Santo Domingo-the capital of the Dominican Republic and home to some 2.6 million people-was entirely new to me. He calls the town вЂњa hidden treasure, an undiscovered Cartagena. Interiors guru Carlos Mota, a world traveler who has put down roots in the Dominican Republic, bought an apartment in the Zona two years ago and recently decorated the new branch of MesГіn de Bari (302 Calle Hostos 809/687-4091), a cafГ© beloved by well-heeled locals. Government money is sprucing up the streets. There are many boutiques like La AlpargaterГa in this utterly charming, centuries-old part of Santo Domingo-which is having a bit of a moment. There, you can pick from among the endless fabric swatches-cheerful florals, bold stripes and plaids-and walk out with a pair of espadrilles for under $50. The atelier, however, is a more polished shop in an early-20th-century building, its faГ§ade painted an electric blue. Think part Brooklyn, part New Orleans, with a dash of downtown L.A. The original is a low-key affair, with a few rows for display and a courtyard out back where thick vines cover decaying stone walls and twentysomethings sip cocktails around low-slung tables. Ricardo Fernandez, the Spanish-born owner of La AlpargaterГa, a company selling handcrafted shoes, was walking me from his first boutique, set on the tiny Calle Salome UreГ±a, to his newer atelier on the wider Calle Las Mercedes. On a stiflingly hot September afternoon in the Dominican Republic-humidity hovering at, oh, 99.9 percent-I found myself toting around a huge ginger margarita on my way to get a pair of espadrilles in Santo DomingoвЂ™s Zona Colonial. A light conversation with David Lynch on Transcendental Meditation, the unified.

Zona caribbean