The Roman Forum at dusk—that was the monumental setting for Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda show tonight. The collection, which paraded down the Via Sacra, the first street in Ancient Rome, paid homage to both the city’s historical classicism and its 1950 and ’60s excesses, though a guest who knows the difference observed it was more Satyricon than La Dolce Vita.

Not far from the Basilica of Maxentius, a Julius Caesar-type and a lyre player took pictures with guests; curly haired men in colorful robes basked in the golden hour sun on the steps of the Temple of Antonius and Faustina; and in the central piazza under the shadow of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, theater troupes, armored soldiers, and vestal virgins crisscrossed the runway as people took their seats. It was a feast for the eyes—and that doesn’t even take into account the 450-plus Dolce & Gabbana clients from around the world who descended on the Eternal City for the show, each one trying to outdo the other in haute couture and high jewelry. Surrealismo!

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have been making Alta Moda collections for 12 years, building their clientele not just with their one-of-a-kind clothes, but with their spectacular locations: Taormina and Siracusa in Dolce’s native Sicilia, Venezia, Napoli, Portofino—the list goes on. Why put off Rome for so long? Dolce, who took his bow solo, having watched the show from the front row alongside Cher, Erling Haaland, Isabella Rossellini, and Christian Bale said, quite simply, “these people have a vision about beauty.” (Gabbana could not attend for family reasons.)