Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakesh

The Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech (Arabic: متحف إيف سان لوران بمراكش, French: Musée Yves Saint Laurent de Marrakech, stylized mYSLm) is a museum dedicated to the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent located in Marrakesh, Morocco.

1. History

Two museums have been established to display the works of Yves Saint Laurent and the collection of the Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent Foundation: one in Marrakesh and the other at the historic headquarters of the Yves Saint Laurent fashion house in Paris. According to Pierre Bergé, the designer's business partner and onetime life partner, "it was natural to build a museum dedicated to the work of Yves Saint Laurent in Morocco, as he—even in the colors and the forms of his clothing—owes so much to the country." The opening of both museums was organized in 2017. The museum in Marrakesh was notably financed by an auction of Moroccan works of art, held in the city by Pierre Bergé September 2015. It was inaugurated October 2017 and opened to the public 19 October 2017. In January 2018, the museum received the best new public building award at the 2018 Design Awards of the British international design magazine Wallpaper.

1. Location

This Marrakesh museum is located on a street that had already been named after the designer, Yves Saint Laurent Street, near Majorelle Garden—Saint Laurent's residence in Morocco, transformed since his death into a garden, a Berber Art Museum, and an exhibition space that received more than 700,000 visitors per year.

1. Description

The museum covers an area of 4,000 m2 (43,000 sq ft). It was designed by Studio KO and built by the Moroccan subsidiary of Bouygues. It includes an exhibition hall featuring the work of Yves Saint Laurent, in which there are photos, videos, sketches, 30,000 accessories, and over 7,000 garments from Saint Laurent's personal collections. Another hall is dedicated to Jacques Majorelle, there are temporary exhibition halls, and holds an auditorium with 13 seats. It also has a gift shop and book store, a café-restaurant with a patio, and a research library with over 5,000 volumes including Andalusi works dating back to the 12th century as well as books on botany, Amazigh art, and the work of Yves Saint Laurent. From the exterior, the earth-colored building takes the form of an assemblage of cubes and curves, dressed in a lace of bricks evoking weaves of fabric. The materials are terra cotta, concrete, and terrazzo, with colors allowing the building to blend in with its surroundings. The earth bricks were made from Moroccan earth and produced locally. The terrazzo in front and on the ground floor is an aggregate of stone and local marbles. Art historian Björn Dahlström, a former director of the Berber Art Museum, edited the book Berber Women of Morocco, which was published in conjunction with the 2014/15 exhibition of the same name and shown in Paris, Manama and Rabat. Apart from numerous photographs of Berber women's jewellery, dress and carpets in the museum's collection, the book presents articles about the traditional culture of Berber women in Morocco.

1. See also

Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris

1. References


1. External links

Official website

Nearby Places View Menu

Yves Saint Laurent (designer)

Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent (1 August 1936 – 1 June 2008), better known as Yves Saint Laurent (, also UK: , US: ; French: [iv sɛ̃ lɔʁɑ̃] ) or YSL, was a French fashion designer who, in 1962, founded his eponymous fashion label. He is regarded as being among the foremost fashion designers of the twentieth century. Saint Laurent's designs often combined elements of comfort and elegance. He is credited with having introduced the "Le Smoking" tuxedo suit for women, and was known for his use of non-European cultural references and diverse models. Fashion historian Caroline Milbank called Saint Laurent "the most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years", adding that he "can be credited with both spurring the couture's rise from its 1960s ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable". In 1983, Saint Laurent became the first living fashion designer to be honored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a solo exhibition. Throughout his couturier career, Saint Laurent received multiple awards for his work. He is a recipient of the 1982 International Fashion Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the 1985 Oscar de la mode, and the 1999 Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award at the CFDA Fashion Awards.

Art Landmark

Majorelle Garden

The Majorelle Garden (French: Jardin Majorelle, Arabic: حديقة ماجوريل, romanized: hadiqat mmajuril, Berber languages: ⵓⵔⵜⵉ ⵎⴰⵊⵓⵔⵉⵍ, romanized: urti majuril) is a one-hectare (two-acre) botanical garden and artist's landscape garden in Marrakesh, Morocco. It was created by the French Orientalist artist Jacques Majorelle over almost forty years, starting in 1923, and features a Cubist villa designed by French architect Paul Sinoir in the 1930s. The property was the residence of the artist and his wife from 1923 until their divorce in the 1950s. In the 1980s, the property was purchased by the fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent and his business manager Pierre Bergé who worked to restore it. Today, the garden and villa complex is open to the public. The villa houses the Berber Museum and in 2017 the Yves Saint Laurent Museum opened nearby.

Landmark Museum

Bab Doukkala

Bab Doukkala (Arabic: باب دكالة, lit. 'gate of the Doukkala') is the main northwestern gate of the medina (historic walled city) of Marrakesh, Morocco.

Historic Site Landmark

Amal Women's Training Center and Moroccan Restaurant

Amal Women's Training Center and Moroccan Restaurant (Arabic: جمعية الامل لفنون الطبخ; French: Association Amal pour les Arts culinaires en faveur des femmes nécessiteuses) is a non-profit organization in Marrakesh, Morocco, that helps disadvantaged women gain work experience by training them in the preparation of Moroccan food and international food. The center was established in 2012 by Nora Belahcen Fitzgerald. Each year between 30 and 40 women complete four to six months of training, which often leads to them finding employment in a relevant field.

Charity Community Centre