Traffic came to a standstill on Saturday afternoon in Milan as Madonna arrived at Dolce & Gabbana fashion week show. Widely rumoured to be a front-row guest, the singer was the last to arrive at the brand’s HQ, prompting a spontaneous standing ovation from the 1,000-strong crowd.

A long-term friend of designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana and ambassador for their brand since the early 1990s, Madonna was dressed in a head-to-toe black lace look from the brand’s last collection and wore a gold crown atop a black Chantilly lace veil as she chatted with her front-row neighbours before the show began.

The show itself, called Italian Beauty, was a dedication to Madonna’s 1990 Blonde Ambition tour wardrobe, designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, and the titular theme.

Descending from a penthouse-style staircase, each model sported the conical bra bustier that Madonna wore during the tour and blond corkscrew-curl wigs reminiscent of the style she sported at the time and documented in the fly-on-the-wall documentary In Bed with Madonna. They were joined by pencil dresses with corset and suspender detailing; sheer lace overlays revealing more conical bras and big pants; and black and pinstripe tailoring that all featured in the music video for Vogue.

As the designers took their final bow, they made the unusual decision to walk the catwalk in search of their front-row muse who stood to receive kisses on her hands and more applause from the crowd.

It was not the first time that Dolce & Gabbana had dedicated a collection inspired by the platinum artist. In 2000, they presented their spring/summer 2001 collection entitled Madonna, Gli Anni Ottanta, preceded by the costumes they designed for her The Girlie Show tour in 1992.

“Madonna has always been our icon. It’s thanks to her that a lot of things in our lives changed,” the designers wrote in the show notes.

Jason Hughes, fashion and creative director of Wallpaper* magazine, said after the show: “Madonna has always engaged in her Italian American heritage long before she became Madonna the pop star and she has a long history with Dolce & Gabbana. They are a match made in heaven – think of their shared 1990s notoriety relating to religious iconography, sex appeal and female power. The Blonde Ambition era was Madonna at the height of her fame and power when she was the biggest superstar on the planet and in the newspapers every day. It’s hard when you’re working at that level to accept and understand how important it is what one has done, but now she can. This feels like her accepting how major it was.”

The Observer understands that Gaultier was not involved with the concept or realisation of the collection with the brand, and that the show was a homage to Madonna and the theme. Gaultier, who the Observer is in the process of trying to contact, continues to collaborate with Madonna.

Last June, it was reported that the designer was working on an animated feature directed by Benoît Philippon in which Madonna is to star, so one might assume that this collection has his blessing.