Christian Lacroix

Christian Lacroix's last couture show, Paris, July 2009 The goodbye nobody planned. With his house in receivership, Lacroix put on a stripped-back couture show made possible because people gave their time for nothing, the models among them. The audience answered with a standing ovation and banners reading "Christian Lacroix Forever." It belongs here as the counterweight to the grand retrospectives: a collection shown under financial collapse, and the end of the couture house that had made his name. For anyone who loved his exuberant color and pouf skirts, it is the most bittersweet entry on the list.