Good things come to those who wait, especially when it involves Christian Siriano. On Friday, guests mingled inside the Pierre on the Upper East Side, adorned with flowers in shades of deep purple and blue, as they awaited the start of the designer’s New York Fashion Week show. Avril Lavigne, Laverne Cox, Quinta Brunson, and more were all in attendance, but once a Siriano-clad Janet Jackson arrived, the show could officially begin.

The presentation, which marked 15 years since Siriano’s debut, cast a diverse group of models who showcased Siriano’s vision for spring-summer 2024, all dressed in romantic and whimsical evening wear that pulled inspiration from the ballet.

“Is it nostalgia? Is it something from the past?” Siriano told Vanity Fair he first asked himself when dreaming up what 15 years should look like on the runway. “My sister and I were ballerinas, and I remember being in these black warm-ups and then coming to life in sugarplum fairy dresses, so I really wanted to show that [transformation] tonight, the progression of what it could be and how visceral and dreamlike clothes can feel. I wanted it to be magical, and a lot of work went into those clothes,” he said.

As for Siriano’s showstopping guest, Jackson said she and the designer met a year ago after the Grammy Award winner fell in love with a red tulle skirt—a textile heavily featured in the collection shown at the Pierre. “I thought it was absolutely gorgeous. So Stunning. Oh, my gosh. He totally outdid himself,” she said of Siriano’s latest collection.

For Jackson, fashion’s ability to evoke feeling is where its beauty lies. “You know it has power when it gives you the ability to feel different, to feel sexy, to feel loony, to take you through these different journeys. That’s what fashion does,” she said.

Jackson, who calls Siriano a “dream” and “joy” to work with, entrusted the season four Project Runway winner to recreate her 1986 Control album cover look for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame late last year. He also costumed her most recent Together Again Tour, her highest grossing of all time.

“She loves fashion and she has so many different styles and tastes, but she’s always cool,” Siriano said. That afternoon, Jackson wore a head-to-toe faux vinyl ensemble—complete with thigh-high boots—in a muted rust color which the designer called “an homage to her and Michael and their black latex.”

During the show, Sia performed live while Coco Rocha served the starry front row with a series of poses in a black and pink ball gown marking a theatrical finale, pulsing with a celebratory spirit.

“It’s difficult because it’s just incredible,” Jackson said as she tried to put Siriano’s artistry into words. “His imagination is sublime. It’s girly, it’s empowering…there’s a masculine touch, but yet there’s still that femininity to it. It’s just sexy,” she said.

As the backstage buzzed, surrounded by his fiercest supporters, Siriano reflected on his time in the industry, noting that 15 years ​​“just means that I’m still hanging on,” he said. “It’s so much work. Fashion is such a hard business. With the strike, I was like, you know what? I’m going to bring the Grammys, the Oscars, the Tonys, the Emmys to that front row, so everyone can be in that world,” he said.

And in that world we were.