Musée YSL Marrakech Opens “Yves Saint Laurent and His Dogs”

Fez — The Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech has unveiled “Yves Saint Laurent and His Dogs,” an exhibition that places the couturier’s four-legged companions at the center of his creative universe. 

Opening September 25, 2025, and running through September 29, 2026, the presentation is curated by author and curator Martin Bethenod and draws on archives, photographs, and drawings to explore Saint Laurent’s own admission: “I am, as they say, a ‘dog person’.”

Rather than treating pets as a footnote, the show reads them as symbols, muses, and steady presences across Saint Laurent’s life—from his childhood in Algeria to the pace of his Paris couture house. 

Visitors encounter the extravagantly named chihuahuas called Hazel and, most popular, the dynasty of four French bulldogs all named Moujik, whose image and temperament became inseparable from the Saint Laurent mythos. The material maps how these companions soothed anxieties, populated private rituals, and bled into public iconography.

Much of popular culture references the glamorous lives of Saint Laurent’s canines. 

The chihuahua appears not only as an accessory but as a sign of ambiguity and transgression. It is part of   the exhibition with figures such as Marlene Dietrich, whose tuxedoed and androgynous persona famously inspired fashion’s most enduring suit; Coccinelle, the first French transgender star; and Hollywood icon Jayne Mansfield. 

The narrative then moves through art history, placing the designer’s own LOVE greeting cards—often illustrated with the Moujiks—alongside portraits by Andy Warhol, who immortalized Moujik II in 1986, and David Hockney, who painted Moujik IV. 

Photographs by Horst P. Horst, Pierre and Alexandra Boulat, and Bettina Rheims complete a gallery that treats the dog as an image woven through fashion, celebrity, and contemporary art.

“Yves Saint Laurent and His Dogs” forms part of the “Amigos Forever” collection published by Norma Editions, a series that reconsiders major 20th- and 21st-century artists through their relationships with a single, defining dog. 

In Marrakech, the project lands with both intimacy and scholarship, offering a new reading of Saint Laurent’s universe at the crossroads of fashion, art, and popular culture while inviting audiences to consider how private attachments shape public creativity.

The exhibition is hosted in the Photography Gallery at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech (Rue Yves Saint Laurent, 40000 Marrakech). Opening night took place Thursday, September 25, 2025, from 7:00 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Public viewing continues through Tuesday, September 29, 2026. Visitors are encouraged to check the museum’s schedule for hours and ticketing.