Yves Saint Laurent: From Marrakech to The Met

Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent (Paris: Editions Assouline, 1996). Above left: The Yves Saint Laurent logo, designed in 1962 by Cassandre (née Adolphe Jean Marie Mouron). Above right: "Showing everything without showing anything." The see-through dress from YSL's winter 1968 collection

It was 2014 and I was watching actor Pierre Niney portray Yves Saint Laurent lounging in Marrakech on the silver screen. Like Yves, I felt swept away by the Marrakech I saw in the movies, and knew I, too, had to make a pilgrimage to the city. Finally, this past March, after monitoring airfare alerts for five years, my fiancé and I boarded a plane to Morocco. We're both librarians, and of the many exciting places we had on our itinerary, we were both looking forward to one visit in particular: the library at the musée Yves Saint Laurent marrakech (mYSLm).

Facade of the musée Yves Saint Laurent marrakech. Photo by Musée Yves Saint Laurent

Interior of the library at the musée Yves Saint Laurent marrakech. Photo by author

This small but mighty collection includes important acquisitions concerning the Berber people (Imazighen), Moroccan history, gardens, fashion history, and of course, Yves Saint Laurent.

I was quick to spot a familiar spine facing out at me from the library's shelves—a Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogue, pictured below. The slim purple volume was the catalogue for the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition held at the Costume Institute during the winter 1983 through fall 1984. Upon returning to Watson, I was eager to trace this exhibition and Yves's influence throughout our own collection.

YSL "shelfie" at the mYSLm library. The purple volume in the center is the exhibition catalogue of The Met's 1983–1984 Yves Saint Laurent show.

My first stop was Watson's special collections, where I pulled the original catalogue of the 1983–84 Met show Yves Saint Laurent: 25 Years of Design. This exhibition was particularly important as it was the first time a Costume Institute exhibition featured a living couturier.

Yves Saint Laurent and Diana Vreeland, Yves Saint Laurent (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983). Above: Cover image. Below: Spread of "pop art" dresses, suede patchwork coats and a satin evening jacket embroidered with a line from Cocteau.

Using Watson's Digital Collections, I was also able to search through our Special Exhibition Gallery Views albums to find photos of the YSL exhibit. Pictured in the "ramp gallery" below, you can see Yves's collection of 1960s cocktail dresses—inspired by the iconic paintings of Piet Mondrian—displayed next to Burgoyne Diller's late 1930s painting Second Theme. As a lover of sixties style, these dresses are a personal favorite of mine, and I also snapped a picture of one on display at the entrance of the stunning permanent collection of the mYSLm.

Above: View of the ramp gallery in the Met’s Yves Saint Laurent exhibition. Below: View of the green gallery in The Met's Yves Saint Laurent exhibition.

Above: Reproduction of a YSL "Mondrian" dress peeking through the doors of the permanent collection room at the mYSLm. Photo by author

Our Digital Collections also offer a glimpse at the exhibition's checklist, where you can study the details of each item in the show, from the clothing to accompanying paintings.

Yves Saint Laurent exhibition checklist, Metropolitan Museum of Art: New York, 1984. Exhibition Checklist cover

Of course, Watson Library holds no shortage of books detailing the genius of Yves Saint Laurent and his love of Morocco. Of particular note is our copy of Yves Saint Laurent: Une Passion Marocaine, written by his life-long partner, Pierre Bergé. This intimate text provides a glimpse into the personal lives of Yves and Pierre, and is filled with pictures from their time in Morocco.

Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent: Une Passion Marocaine (Paris: Martinière, 2010). Above: Photos of Yves and friends in Morocco. Below: Yves standing in the iconic Djemaa el Fna square, in Marrakech

A big thank you to Librarian Juan Palao and Assistant Librarian Ferdaous Affan for hosting us at their library in Marrakech!

Librarians in Morocco! From left to right: James Malin (NYU), Melissa Raymond, Juan Palao and Ferdaous Affan