ANDRÉ RAU'S PHOTOGRAPH OF CATHERINE DENEUVE AND YVES SAINT LAURENT AT THE DESIGNER'S VILLA OASIS IN MARRAKESH.
Y ves Saint Laurent was not a man to discard things. His drawings, photographs, couture sketches and design prototypes dating back to the founding of his couture house in 1962, along with thousands of garments and accessories, are now part of the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation.
To properly display them, Bergé, who was Saint Laurent’s longtime partner, has seen to the creation of two museums, one in Paris and the other in Marrakesh, in Jardin Majorelle, the botanical garden that the couple had bought in 1980 to save it from modern development. There, Paris-based architectural firm Studio KO has created a 4,000-square-metre area, which includes a permanent exhibition space that pays homage to Morocco in its use of local stone and terracotta and to the couturier with the inclusion of brickwork lattices echoing the patterns of thread within fabric. The Paris museum is remaining inside the legendary YSL hôtel particulier, but it has been re-envisioned by set and exhibition designer Nathalie Crinière and, fittingly, interior decorator Jacques Grange: it was Grange, after all, who decorated Saint Laurent’s Villa Oasis in Marrakesh and Villa Mabrouka in Tangier. Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Paris and Marrakesh, opening 3 October.
LEAD IMAGE: YVES SAINT LAURENT IN DJEMAA EL FNA SQUARE IN MARRAKESH. © REGINALD GRAY
