21 of the best runway finales of all time

The diverse cast of models at Valentino‘s SS19 couture presentation—including Naomi Campbell herself to close the show—”goes against all the xenophobia in Italy and, hopefully, all over the world,” Pierpaolo Piccioli said after the show. Naomi couldn’t hold back her tears, and neither, watching from the front row, could Celine Dion.

A master showman, the late Alexander McQueen was known for pushing boundaries with his runway shows. The SS99 presentation drew gasps when model Shalom Harlow’s pristine white dress was spray painted by robots.

For his AW09 presentation, John Galliano transported the audience to an eerie winter wonderland. The models floated down the catwalk through a micro-bubble snow storm, lit by lasers to haunting effect.

The Louis Vuitton AW19 show, Virgil Abloh’s second as men’s artistic director, was an homage to Michael Jackson staged on a faux New York street, with Dev Hynes providing the soundtrack.

Kim Jones commissioned a 39ft tall sculpture of a robot by the Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama to form the centrepiece of the Dior Men’s pre-fall 2019 show in Tokyo.

Jean Paul Gaultier bid farewell to ready-to-wear with his SS15 show in Paris, a riotous beauty pageant dubbed Élection​ de Miss Jean Paul Gaultier 2015.

Marc Jacobs had pairs of models descend onto the runway via four moving escalators at the close of the Louis Vuitton SS13 show

Instead of a traditional finale walk, the models at Stella McCartney‘s AW17 presentation closed the show by dancing and singing along to “Faith”, a tribute to the late George Michael.

Naomi Campbell closed Virgil Abloh’s Off-White SS18 show, a subtle tribute to the late Princess Diana and her power suits.

Famed for exuberant finales, Sonia Rykiel‘s AW11 presentation concluded with feather-clad models crowding onto the catwalk en masse.

Models splashed their way along a beach created in the the Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées for the finale of the SS19 Chanel show, watched from a jetty by creative mastermind Karl Lagerfeld.

Dame Vivienne Westwood was memorably held aloft by an acrobat at the close of the Spring 2018 menswear show.

Christopher Bailey bid farewell to Burberry with an AW18 show that was a celebration of gay pride—culminating in Cara Delevingne sweeping down the runway in a rainbow cape.

Rather than have the models walk the runway to close his SS15 show, Dries Van Noten had them recline on a catwalk that had been transformed into a mossy forest floor.

Kim Jones made an emotional departure as Louis Vuitton’s artistic director for menswear flanked by Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell at the close of the AW18 show.

Clever technology saw the models appear behind a curtain of rain at the Kenzo SS14 show.

Rufus Wainwright performed for an audience of editors and celebrities at Michael Kors SS17 runway show.

To mark the 20th anniversary of her brother’s death, Donatella Versace assembled original ’90s supermodels Carla Bruni, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen for a tribute that set the Internet alight.