Karl Lagerfeld’s final Fendi Fall/Winter 2019 show at Milan Fashion Week marked the final chapter of a breathtaking 54-year relationship between the legend and the Italian fashion house. Lagerfeld was fully engaged in every aspect of the show until the very end. “I want the bow,” he said on the day before his death, as a final instruction to Silvia Venturini Fendi about the opening look.

As ordered, the show opened with British model Fran Summers wearing “the bow,” a tan, double-breasted jacket with a white silk Lavalliere tie. It was a look inspired by a self-portrait of Lagerfeld from his early days at Fendi. From here on in, the collection was a retrospective of the signatures Lagerfeld embedded in Fendi’s DNA: the high, stand-up collars that Karl himself embraced as part of his personal uniform; the reimagined 1981 Fendi double F logo (dubbed “Karligraphy”), based on Karl’s own handwriting, that appeared on everything from sheer stockings and tops to a shearling coat; and his immaculate tailoring in the form of structured pagoda shoulder jackets.

The show closed with Gigi Hadid in a buttercup-yellow dress, followed by a standing ovation as Silvia Venturini Fendi took a solo bow. Above, a large screen showed Karl Lagerfeld on his first day at Fendi in 1965, with a pen in hand.