The Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakesh is a pure delight. It is set in a ravishing building dreamed up by the engaging Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty of Studio KO. I met them long ago when they were about the age when apprentices at the studios of big-name architects would be looking at 20 years of hard slog before beginning the painful process of establishing themselves. The boys of Studio KO, however, had by then chosen to relocate to Marrakesh. At their tender age, operating in a city where their culture, taste and vision were remarkable, they had already built incredible houses in the Palmeraie and the medina (Wol April 2023), a vast restaurant in Marra- kesh (think Rick’s Café with palm fronds, plump 1930s leather chairs and a fretwork of straw wall panels) and their own studio. It was here I first saw their maquette for the Saint Laurent museum, for they had been discovered by Pierre Bergé, Yves’s one-time romantic partner and his long-term businessman – although that doesn’t explain the half of it. The building enchanted me: the glazed brick, laid in a moucharabieh pattern on the façade, hints at the wonderful Arab touches within. Sadly, Pierre had died just a month before its unveiling in 2017, but his spirit was alive in all its elegant details.
Much to my surprise, Madison Cox – who, as Pierre’s husband, has inherited this fine array of treasures, including the Fondation Jardin Majorelle here in Mo – said he wanted to give the museum over to me for 2025 (the first time that’s happened, as they have consistently drawn from their own archives). ‘Well, we want 50 pieces,’ he said, at which I rather gulped. Fifty pieces by Yves, that is, from my own collection! Then I started counting. I was at 150 before I knew what I was doing. So that was a relief.
We had black mannequins – Schläppis to work with. They are very chic, with their abstracted faces and elegant limbs, evoking as they do Yves’s 1983 retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the first time that institution had given a show to a living designer). I couldn’t go out to America, so I stayed up very late for a couple of nights to see Thomas and Pernille Loof’s remarkable pictures for my exhibition catalogue come to life (Molly Sorkin and Jennifer Y. Park styled and fitted the garments, and Jacob Wildschiødtz was the exceptional art director).
There were two things I especially wanted – an autumn 1966 evening gown, with its skirt of vibrant pink faille and its bodice like abstract stained glass. I’d bought it years ago and when it was being dressed we realised that it was tiny, should I say infinitesimal. Alas, it wasn’t right for the show, but it is a miniature jewel in the book. The second was a dress I found in a vintage shop in Ibiza Town, if you can believe it, the perfect mini counterpoint to a 1968 long day dress and the same season. It, too, was pocket-sized.
Meanwhile, Patrick Kinmonth was hard at work on the scenography for the show, which I’d conceived in three parts: Christian Dior and the start of Yves’s designing life, graceful if quietly rebellious; Yves Saint Laurent couture, with one astonishing creation after another; and the wonderful ‘Rive Gauche’ line, modern and easy. I was particularly taken with how a denim-look jumpsuit from that range was the same season as Yves’s fully fantastical Russian/Moroccan collection. Betty Catroux wore it (unbuttoned to there, and incised with an Elsa Peretti belt).
Kinmonth had done a transporting job. I looked at his work, and that of his brilliant associate, Raphaé Memon, and suddenly – in a miniature croquis on the laptop screen – I saw my world and this disorder of clothes come to glorious life.
‘Yves Saint Laurent: The Hamish Bowles Collection’ runs 31 Jan-4 Jan 2026. For more information, visit museeyslmarrakech.com
A version of this article also appeared in the January 2025 issue of ‘The World of Interiors’. Learn about our subscription offers. Sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter, and be the first to receive exclusive stories like this one, direct to your inbox
