{"id":264791,"date":"2026-09-23T23:33:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T23:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/23\/vogue-sent-robots-down-the-runway-at-vogue-world-and-people-were-not-impressed-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T23:33:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T23:33:22","slug":"vogue-sent-robots-down-the-runway-at-vogue-world-and-people-were-not-impressed-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/23\/vogue-sent-robots-down-the-runway-at-vogue-world-and-people-were-not-impressed-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Vogue sent robots down the runway at Vogue World, and people were not impressed | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Vogue World closed its Milan edition this week with a troupe of robots \u2014 perhaps a preview of what\u2019s coming when the event descends on San Francisco next year.<\/p>\n

Vogue World is the magazine\u2019s annual traveling spectacle, now in its fifth year: part runway show, part celebrity showcase, part variety hour, part ad-sales opportunity<\/a>, staged in a different city each time. It has run through New York, London, Paris, and Hollywood. This year\u2019s Milan edition was marketed as a tribute to Italian craftsmanship and \u201cthe human touch\u201d in an age of technology, which makes what happened next a little strange.<\/p>\n

During the act titled The Age of Intelligence, humanoid robots made by the Chinese firm Unitree walked into the Galleria to Gigi D\u2019Agostino\u2019s \u201cL\u2019Amour Toujours.\u201d They waved their arms in the air, imploring onlookers to clap. One did a lasso. They were not wearing clothes. The pained expression<\/a> of Alessandro Michele, the creative director of Valentino, quickly went viral.<\/p>\n

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Vogue World Milano ends (appropriately Europoor-kitschily) with tiny robottini dancing to L\u2019Amour Toujours while Alessandro Michele slowly dies inside pic.twitter.com\/xicYWWl6VW<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 sascha (@SaschaAmato) September 22, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

I haven\u2019t seen a single thing about the actual fashion that was presented at Vogue World Milan. Instead, everyone is talking about the robots. (These same robots have been making headlines worldwide for their dance moves<\/a>, and for falling and breaking<\/a>.) Similar robots turned up on the runway at London Fashion Week, which is happening now.<\/p>\n

Vogue turned heads earlier this year when it announced that the next edition will be in San Francisco, arguably one of the least stylish cities in the United States. The timing isn\u2019t coincidental. Anna Wintour has aligned herself<\/a> ever more closely with the tech barons of our time, and Vogue World Milan was itself sponsored in part by Meta Glasses, with additional support from OpenAI.<\/p>\n

It was one of those moments that reveals how thoroughly tech exists in a bubble, and that not everyone is happy with the rapid adoption of new technology, or by Vogue cozying up to the symbols of the insanely rich \u2014 and only getting richer \u2014 tech titans during a cost-of-living crisis.<\/a> That\u2019s before you get to AI, mass surveillance, the displacement of labor, and the energy crisis, all of them overseen by the same titans. For some, a robot on a runway is further proof of what is going wrong in the world right now.<\/p>\n

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We are all Alessandro Michele, sitting front row at Vogue World Milan, having an existential crisis about the absolute state of things while robots awkwardly dance about. Numb to the pain at this point. Madness.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Michael J. Miraflor (@michaelmiraflor) September 23, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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just got off the phone with the creative director of Vogue World. First question he asked me. \u201cSo you hated the robots?\u201d \ud83e\udd2d
Full interview on Substack tomorrow \ud83d\udc40 https:\/\/t.co\/FTa3gumPgY<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Louis Pisano (@LouisPisano) September 23, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m annoyed by the celebrities cheering the whole thing,\u201d one tech founder wrote me on Instagram. \u201cIt\u2019s sick and gloom. People are literally losing jobs and livelihoods because of these things. They need to stop encouraging it. What\u2019s it even modeling? Headphones?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

One fashion reporter friend simply said \u201cNo,\u201d when I asked for thoughts on the robots and Vogue World San Francisco. Jason Johnson, founder of Culture Impact Agency, noted that Vogue has been trying to build a relationship with Silicon Valley for at least the past decade, highlighting when Jony Ive co-hosted the Met Gala back<\/a> in 2015.<\/a> The dancing robots at Vogue World Milan were inevitable, then, as is Vogue World San Francisco and as was Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez, getting the splashy Vogue wedding cover and co-hosting the 2026 Met Gala.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPublications are figuring out new ways to make money and tech has money,\u201d he told me. \u201cVogue has the cultural influence and access that those tech people want.\u201d Both sides win in the end, he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, something about the way Vogue is going about this feels unnatural.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The collection I think about every day and what I think should be shown at Vogue World San Francisco. <\/span>Image Credits:<\/strong>WWD \/ Contributor \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Muna Ikedionwu, founder of MKEDI, a strategy firm for early-stage startups, said what she found most interesting about the robots is that they don\u2019t fully represent the innovation and progress that\u2019s actually happening in the creative technologist space. \u201cI\u2019ve seen such incredible examples of engineering and AI being used to influence fashion, being used to influence design and art,\u201d she told me, adding that robots walking down the runway doesn\u2019t even scratch the surface of what is happening right now at the intersection of fashion and tech. <\/p>\n

She points to the artist duo AA Murakami<\/a>, who created Olympian Eileen Gu\u2019s dress of bubbles at this year\u2019s Met Gala<\/a>. They are fashion designers but also engineers, Ikedionwu said, noting a presentation she saw them give recently about how to create an \u201ceverlasting bubble.\u201d They\u00a0 are helping to pioneer \u201cemphemeral technology,\u201d she said, \u201cthis idea of technology and innovation that speaks to the ephemeral nature or the temporariness of art and humanity and the soul.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sure, I guess when you compare it to this, the robots did seem quite boring. Whenever I think about the intersection of fashion and technology, I think about that Spring 2024 Schiaparelli collection<\/a>, which unveiled a robot baby crafted with Swarovski crystals and a dress made with vintage tech like PC microchips. (I once threatened to wear that dress to Disrupt; see image above.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ikedionwu wonders whether this robot performance was a way to make the general public more comfortable with technology and fashion overlapping, a merger that has been underway behind the scenes for years. If so, it didn\u2019t work. But maybe Vogue World is saving all the good stuff for San Francisco.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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