The Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent have found a place to house its collection, with the unveiling of the new Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech. The museum, due to open its doors in fall 2017, will house the foundation’s incredible collection, comprising 5,000 items of clothing, 15,000 haute couture accessories, and tens of thousands of sketches and objects, which currently live in Paris.
The building itself — which, with its terracotta color scheme, perfectly blends with its Moroccan surroundings — has been designed by the French architecture firm Studio KO. They’re responsible for the Chiltern Firehouse in London, a louche environment Saint Laurent himself would probably have approved of. Studio KO architects were inspired by Saint Laurent’s fluency in both straight lines and curves in his work, and sought to bring this into the building, which is made up of cubic forms adorned with bricks. This gives the exterior the resemblance of threads, whilst inside it’s going to look like as luxurious as a couture jacket.
The museum is adjacent to the famed Jardin Majorelle, and will include a huge permanent exhibition space, an auditorium and a research library. The library’s collection includes books on Arabic and Andalusian history, as well as Berber culture and Yves Saint Laurent’s work.
Pierre Bergé, Saint Laurent’s long term companion, and President of the Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, had this to say:
“Yves Saint Laurent and I discovered Marrakech in 1966, and we never left. This city deeply influenced Saint Laurent’s life and work, particularly his discovery of color. The Studio KO architects share this passion for Marrakech. Their admiration for the region and its culture, as well as their intellectual and artistic rigor, signaled to us that they would be the perfect architects to undertake this project. Their clean, uncluttered style recalls Saint Laurent’s work, and we are delighted to be able to develop a common vision for a project of this stature, which is as emblematic as Yves Saint Laurent’s oeuvre.”
Credits
Text Jack Sunnucks
Photography courtesy Fondation Pierre Bergé — Yves Saint Laurent