Hustler Words – The recent Vogue World event in Milan, intended as a grand homage to Italian craftsmanship and the irreplaceable "human touch," concluded with a perplexing spectacle: a contingent of humanoid robots parading down the runway. This unexpected display, featuring units from Chinese firm Unitree, quickly overshadowed any actual fashion presented, sparking widespread discussion and visible discomfort among attendees and online observers alike. Many are now questioning whether this was a preview of innovation or a profound misstep as Vogue increasingly aligns itself with the tech industry, particularly with its next destination set for San Francisco.
During the segment provocatively titled "The Age of Intelligence," these unclad robots ambled through the historic Galleria, attempting synchronized movements and arm waves to Gigi D’Agostino’s "L’Amour Toujours." The scene was met with a palpable sense of unease, epitomized by the now-viral image of Valentino creative director Alessandro Michele’s visibly pained expression. Far from celebrating design, the robotic interlude became the sole talking point, eclipsing any sartorial achievements and mirroring similar robotic appearances at London Fashion Week.
This peculiar choice in Milan is not an isolated incident but rather a clear indicator of Vogue’s deepening strategic pivot towards the technology sector. With the magazine’s annual traveling spectacle slated for San Francisco next year – a city not traditionally celebrated for its high fashion – the timing appears deliberate. Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour has demonstrably cultivated closer ties with tech magnates, a relationship underscored by Vogue World Milan’s sponsorship from Meta Glasses and additional backing from OpenAI. This alliance, as industry observers like Jason Johnson of Culture Impact Agency note, has been brewing for over a decade, with Vogue offering cultural cachet and access in exchange for the tech industry’s substantial financial resources.
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However, this embrace of technology on such a prominent stage has exposed a growing chasm between the tech elite and public sentiment. The robot display resonated with many as a stark symbol of technology’s perceived detachment and rapid, often uncritical, adoption. Amidst a global cost-of-living crisis, concerns about AI’s impact on labor, mass surveillance, and energy consumption, the sight of dancing robots, funded by the "insanely rich" tech titans, struck a discordant note. Social media quickly filled with reactions ranging from existential despair to outright annoyance, with one tech founder lamenting the encouragement of technologies that displace jobs.
Critics argue that the Milan robots represented a superficial understanding of the true potential at the intersection of fashion and technology. Muna Ikedionwu, founder of MKEDI, a strategy firm for early-stage startups, highlighted that the runway display barely scratched the surface of genuine innovation happening in the creative technologist space. She points to groundbreaking work by artist duo AA Murakami, who crafted Olympian Eileen Gu’s "bubble dress" for the Met Gala, pioneering "ephemeral technology" that explores the temporary nature of art and humanity through advanced engineering. Such examples, along with collections like Schiaparelli’s Spring 2024 line featuring a robot baby and a dress made from vintage PC microchips, demonstrate a far more integrated and thoughtful approach than the Milan spectacle.
The question remains whether the Milan performance was a clumsy attempt to acclimate the public to the long-evolving merger of fashion and technology, or simply a misjudgment. If the former, it largely failed to impress. Yet, there’s a lingering hope that Vogue World San Francisco might unveil the more sophisticated, truly innovative applications of tech in fashion, moving beyond mere robotic spectacle to showcase the deeper, more impactful collaborations that are genuinely shaping the industry’s future.
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