The mYSLm Museum (musée YVES SAINT LAURENT marrakech) is both a repository of Yves Saint Laurent's heritage and a tribute to his passion for Morocco and Marrakech. It is located next to the Majorelle garden, which the fashion designer and Pierre Berger acquired in 1980. Saint Laurent spent a lot of time in Marrakech since the late 1960s, while living in the Oasis Villa in the Majorelle Garden, which he has restored, for the last 30 years. Now there are two museums open there - the Islamic and the Berber.
The new museum continues this complex and its theme: local nature and culture combined with the work of Saint Laurent. The Museum in Marrakech is one of the two museums of the fashion designer, the second is open in Paris. In Morocco, as in France, exhibits from the collection of Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent are shown, which consists of 5,000 clothing items, 15,000 accessories, tens of thousands of sketches and other items.
Studio KO architects chose traditional local brick and terrazzo panels of local stone and marble for the façades. The interior is protected from overheating by double external walls and double glazing. On an area of 4000 m2, 400 m2 of permanent exhibition halls, 150 m2 for temporary exhibitions, a bookstore, a storehouse for the mYSLm itself and the Berber Museum in the Majorelle garden, a café-restaurant with a terrace, a scientific library with 5000 volumes on the nature, history and culture of the Maghreb and Andalusia, about the fashion and creativity of Saint Laurent, as well as an auditorium with 130 seats with thoughtful acoustics.
A special mention deserves a garden based on the same principles as the Majorelle garden: saving water and using species suitable for the climate. It was designed by landscape architect Madison Cox, now president of the Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent.
