Items23The creator’s order
  1. 1Hubert de GivenchyHubert de GivenchyHubert de Givenchy's final couture show, Paris, July 11, 1995 His Fall 1995 haute couture collection was the last he designed for the house that carried his name, and it ended with the models turning to applaud him as he took his bow. It is the reason to remember it: a couturier of the old school,…0
  2. 2Yves Saint Laurent (designer)Yves Saint Laurent (designer)Born Aug 1, 1936Yves Saint Laurent's retrospective farewell, Centre Pompidou, Paris, January 22, 2002 The most complete career summary on this list. Instead of a new season, the show walked through forty years of his work on the most famous models of the moment, while a crowd in the square outside watched on a…0
  3. 3Tom FordTom FordBorn Aug 27, 1961Tom Ford's last Gucci womenswear show, Milan, February 2004 Ford turned his exit into a glossy mini-retrospective, recreating the high points of roughly a decade at Gucci with fresh polish. For anyone who only knows Gucci as a logo, this is the clearest snapshot of how he rebuilt it into the…0
  4. 4Valentino (fashion designer)Valentino (fashion designer)Valentino's last haute couture show, Paris, January 23, 2008 A planned goodbye staged with total control. The spring collection of 74 pieces, all satin bows, lace and crystal, stayed true to the feminine elegance that had defined his 45-year career. Then came the finale everyone remembers: the…0
  5. 5Martin MargielaMartin MargielaMartin Margiela's 20th-anniversary show, fall 2008 The quietest exit here, and fittingly so for a designer who made a point of never attending his own shows. The show asked what was left after twenty years, forty shows and hundreds of garments, and answered with a greatest-hits retrospective of…0
  6. 6Christian LacroixChristian LacroixChristian 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…0
  7. 7Alexander McQueenAlexander McQueenAlexander McQueen's Plato's Atlantis, Paris, October 6, 2009 Nobody in the room knew it would be his last show, which makes it the most haunting farewell on this list. The Spring 2010 collection became the first fashion show streamed live on the internet, through SHOWstudio, and Lady Gaga used it…0
  8. 8John GallianoJohn GallianoJohn Galliano's last Dior collection, shown without him, Paris, March 4, 2011 The most abrupt ending here. Dior dismissed Galliano days before the show over anti-Semitic remarks, and the house went ahead with his Fall 2011 ready-to-wear collection under a tent in the Rodin Museum gardens after an…0
  9. 9Raf SimonsRaf SimonsRaf Simons's last Jil Sander show, Fall 2012, Milan, February 25, 2012 His exit had been announced only the week before, and the audience knew it. Simons answered with his most romantic collection for the house: coats the color of face powder worn open like robes, with florist Mark Colle's flowers…0
  10. 10Marc JacobsMarc JacobsMarc Jacobs's last Louis Vuitton show, Spring 2014, the Louvre, Paris, October 2, 2013 Jacobs turned his last show into a greatest-hits set, filling the space with pieces of earlier Vuitton runways in inky black: a dark fountain, a carousel of surreal horses, a twin escalator and a hotel elevator.…0