1966
Discovering Morocco
Related to Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Bergé
In 1966, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé made their first trip to Morocco. They immediately fell in love with the country and agreed to buy a small house in the medina: Dar el-Hanch (the Snake’s House). Saint Laurent would go on to travel to Morocco a few times a year to design his collections. Morocco was where he said he learned about color.
“On every street corner in Marrakech, you encounter astonishingly vivid groups of men and women, which stand out in a blend of pink, blue, green, and purple caftans. It’s astonishing to realize that these groups, which seem to be drawings or paintings and which evoke Delacroix’s sketches, are really just improvised from life.”
Yves Saint Laurent, cited in Yves Saint Laurent, by Laurence Benaïm.
Dar el-Hanch was a small house which we decorated modestly with tables and chairs found in the souks. The house bordered a vacant parcel of land which was called the "Lemon Garden", behind which an alley way led to the Bab Doukkala mosque. We spent many happy moments in this house."
Pierre Bergé, A Moroccan Passion.
