yves saint laurent
The external lattice made up of terracotta bricks was designed to resemble the weave pattern of textile.

What: The long-awaited Yves Saint Laurent museum in Marrakech, Morocco, which opened mid last month.

yves saint laurent
The designer first visited Marrakech in 1966 and fell in love with the city instantly.

Why: Sure, the Parisian counterpart (it opened about two weeks earlier) has more archival pieces, but Marrakech was the designer’s spiritual home – he owned multiple residences and regularly retreated there to work on collections before presenting them in Paris. Such was the city’s influence that Saint Laurent once said that before discovering Marrakech, he saw only in “black and white”, according to a BBC interview with his long-time romantic and business partner Pierre Berge, who passed on a month before the institution opened. That alone makes this a mecca for SL devotees, but the 43,000 sq ft space would appeal to fashion fiends and travellers as much as it lives up to all the industry hype. Expect regularly updated displays showcasing pieces mined from the Fondation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent’s archives, which include over 5,000 articles of clothing, 15,000 haute couture accessories, and tens of thousands of personal sketches. Architecturally, it’s stunning – designed by Studio KO, the same firm behind London’s Chiltern Firehouse and the Moroccan homes of the Hermes family, while adjacent is Jardin Majorelle. Bought and restored by Saint Laurent and Berge in 1980, the garden is Africa’s most famous – and where the designer’s ashes are scattered.

Where: Rue Yves Saint Laurent (the street named after the man in 2010), Marrakech, Morocco

Photos Fondation Jardin Majorelle & Reginald Grey

This story first appeared in Female’s November 2017 issue.

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