The foundation dedicated to conserving the work of legendary French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent has revealed two new museum dedicated to his life and career will open in France and Morocco in 2017.
The Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent will showcase part of its vast collection of accessories, haute couture garments, sketches, collection boards, photographs and objects collected by Laurent between 1962 and 2002.
“To this day, this collection has no equivalent in the international milieu,” said the foundation in a statement. “A real pioneer, Yves Saint Laurent is the only designer of his generation who decided to systematically archive his work since the creation of his couture house in 1961. From original sketches to prototypes, warehouse records to retailing books, the collection is unique in scope, scale and range.
The museum’s Paris branch will be housed in 5 avenue Marceau, the studio where Laurent designed and created his work for almost 30 years. The space is currently occupied by the foundation’s offices and some of its collection.
Stage designer Nathalie Crinière and interior designer Jacques Grange will rethink the available exhibition space, doubling it in size and refurbishing the interiors in the style of the designer’s original couture house.
The museum will open in Q3 next year, coinciding with the opening of the second site in Marrakech. The city was a major inspiration for Laurent from 1966 onwards, and he was a regular traveller there.
The museum will be located in a new 4,000sq m (43,000sq ft) structure designed by French architects Studio KO on Rue Yves Saint Laurent near Jardin Majorelle – a garden the designer saved from being developed.
It will comprise a permanent display of Laurent’s work, a space for temporary exhibitions, an auditorium, a research library and a café and restaurant.
“When Yves Saint Laurent discovered Marrakech in 1966, he was so moved by the place that he decided to buy a house and regularly go back there,” said Pierre Bergé, the foundation’s president and Laurent’s life partner. “It feels perfectly natural, fifty years later, to build a museum dedicated to his oeuvre, which was so inspired by this country.”
Other famous French designers to have museums built in their honour include Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton –
a collection of whose work is exhibited in a Frank Gehry-designed ‘cloud of glass’.
