Yves Saint Laurent's ashes scattered in Marrakesh (Reuters)

MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - Friends of Yves SaintLaurent scattered his ashes on Wednesday in the botanicalgarden in Marrakesh where the reclusive fashion designer foundinspiration and refuge from fame.

More than 100 guests including French former cultureminister Jack Lang and fashion designer Paloma Picasso joinedthe private ceremony at the garden where bulbul birds sang inthe trees and sunlight bounced off pools of cool water.

Saint Laurent and long-time companion Pierre Berge boughtthe Majorelle Garden in 1980 and gave a new lease of life toits cobalt blue walls and lily pools standing among cacti,bamboo, palms and agave.

Today its quiet pathways and small museum of Islamic artare popular with tourists dazed from visiting the city'snarrow, dusty streets crowded with donkey carts and beepingmopeds.

"I am very happy that he chose Marrakesh, this magicalplace, to rest for eternity," Lang said.

Saint Laurent was credited with changing forever what womenwore and was the first designer to make luxury labelsaccessible to a wider audience through innovative read-to-wearcollections.

But he also struggled with the pressure of fame andsuffered from alcohol and drug addiction. Friends say he foundpeace and seclusion in the gardens, often retreating thereafter stressful fashion shows.

The designer was born and raised in the then French colonyof Algeria and found something familiar in Marrakesh when heand Berge arrived there in the late 1960s.

Morocco inspired some of the daring color combinations inSaint Laurent's creations -- orange with purple, pink with red-- that earned him a reputation as the designer with the bestcolor sense of the 20th century.

MEMORIAL

"I remember we used to drive up to the mountains nearMarrakesh," said long-time Marrakesh resident Bill Willis, aclose friend of Saint Laurent who designed his villa.

"We would see Berber peasant women carrying their bundlesof firewood who wore the most wonderful color combinations --he inspired himself a lot from that."

The city's peasant lifestyle amid opulent town houses alsohelped inspire Saint Laurent's ethnic look that became popularwith hippies.

At the height of the free-wheeling 1960s, he and Bergewould entertain friends at their Marrakesh palace, includingSaint Laurent's muse Loulou de la Falaise and Talitha Getty --the fashionable wife of John Paul Getty -- who died of a heroinoverdose in 1971.

When they bought the gardens, laid out by French painterJacques Majorelle in the 1920s, Saint Laurent and Berge helpedbring a cachet to Marrakesh that propelled it into worldtourism's major league.

First adventurous Westerners moved in to restore houses inthe old medina. Now construction cranes have joined the palmtrees and Atlas mountains that form the city's backdrop.

Large hotels and golf resorts have sprung up, bringing muchneeded jobs to a poverty stricken region but removing much ofthe charm that drew creative foreigners in the 1960s.

After Saint Laurent's ashes were scattered, a memorial tohis memory was unveiled at his villa in the garden, staff said.

(Writing by Tom Pfeiffer)