Vogue World’s Milan edition ended with a performance by humanoid robots from the Chinese firm Unitree in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II — a moment that quickly overshadowed the fashion on display and reopened debates about technology’s place in fashion events.
Vogue World is the magazine’s five-year-old traveling production: part runway show, part celebrity showcase, part variety act, and a commercial opportunity. Previous editions have taken place in New York, London, Paris and Hollywood. The Milan edition was promoted as a tribute to Italian craftsmanship and “the human touch” during a technological era, which made the robot finale strikingly paradoxical.
The act, billed as The Age of Intelligence, featured Unitree humanoid robots walking into the Galleria to Gigi D’Agostino’s L’Amour Toujours. The machines waved to the crowd, encouraged applause, and one performed a lasso trick. They were not clothed. Alessandro Michele, creative director of Valentino, displayed a pained expression that circulated widely on social media — including tweets dated September 22, 2026.
Media and social commentary about the Milan show focused more on the robots than the actual clothing presented. These Unitree robots have previously attracted attention for their dance moves worldwide, and for incidents in which they fell or broke. Similar robots have also appeared on runways at London Fashion Week, which is currently taking place.
Sponsorship, Silicon Valley ties and criticism
The Milan edition was supported in part by Meta Glasses, with additional backing from OpenAI. Vogue also announced that the next edition will be held in San Francisco next year — a choice observers say aligns with Anna Wintour’s growing engagement with major tech figures. That alignment and the presence of high-profile tech sponsors prompted criticism about the magazine’s cozying up to extremely wealthy tech leaders, particularly amid a cost-of-living crisis.
Critiques extended beyond sponsorship optics to broader concerns about AI, mass surveillance, labor displacement and energy issues, many of which are associated with the same technology companies. For some critics, a robot on the runway is emblematic of broader social and economic problems.
Reactions from the public and industry insiders
Social media responses ranged from humorous to sharply critical. Some commentators used Alessandro Michele’s reaction to express discomfort; a tech founder messaged that it was ‘‘sick’’ to see celebrities cheer robots while people lose jobs to automation. A fashion reporter gave a one-word reply, "No," when asked about the robots and Vogue World San Francisco.
Jason Johnson, founder of Culture Impact Agency, noted that Vogue has been trying to build relationships with Silicon Valley for at least a decade, citing Jony Ive co-hosting the Met Gala in 2015 as an example. He argued that the appearance of robots in Milan and the planned San Francisco edition were predictable: tech brings money, Vogue brings cultural influence and access, and both parties benefit.
Different kinds of fashion-tech innovation
Not everyone thinks the robot performance represented the most interesting work at the intersection of fashion and technology. Muna Ikedionwu, founder of MKEDI, a strategy firm for early-stage startups, said the runway robots do not reflect the more sophisticated engineering and AI applications she has seen influencing fashion, design and art.
Ikedionwu pointed to creative work such as the artist duo AA Murakami’s bubble dress for Olympian Eileen Gu at this year’s Met Gala, and recalled the Spring 2024 Schiaparelli collection that featured a robot baby encrusted with Swarovski crystals and a dress incorporating vintage tech like PC microchips. She described such projects as examples of "ephemeral technology," innovations that engage with the temporariness of art and human experience — and suggested those are more representative of the field’s potential than a parade of humanoid machines.
Ikedionwu suggested the robot routine might have been intended to make the public more comfortable with the merging of fashion and technology, a process that has been developing behind the scenes for years. If that was the goal, the Milan performance largely failed to convince critics and many viewers. Some hope Vogue World will reserve more substantive or creative tech showcases for its San Francisco edition next year.
What’s next
With Vogue World scheduled to travel to San Francisco in 2027, observers will watch whether future editions present more nuanced or innovative intersections of fashion and technology, or whether spectacle-driven moments like the Galleria robots will continue to define the conversation. The Milan episode underscored that integrating technology into high-profile cultural events is both commercially appealing and culturally contentious.
