Vogue sent robots down the runway at Vogue World, and people were not impressed

Nothing says Italian craftsmanship like a Chinese robot doing a lasso to "L'Amour Toujours." Vogue World closed its Milan edition this week with a troupe of robots — perhaps a preview of what’s coming when the event descends on San Francisco next year. Vogue World is the magazine’s annual traveling spectacle, now in its fifth year: part runway show, part celebrity showcase, part variety hour, part ad-sales opportunity, staged in a different city each time. It has run through New York, London, Paris, and Hollywood. This year’s Milan edition was marketed as a tribute to Italian craftsmanship and “the human touch” in an age of technology, which makes what happened next a little strange.

During the act titled The Age of Intelligence, humanoid robots made by the Chinese firm Unitree walked into the Galleria to Gigi D’Agostino’s “L’Amour Toujours.” They waved their arms in the air, imploring onlookers to clap. One did a lasso. They were not wearing clothes. The pained expression of Alessandro Michele, the creative director of Valentino, quickly went viral. Vogue World Milano ends (appropriately Europoor-kitschily) with tiny robottini dancing to L’Amour Toujours while Alessandro Michele slowly dies inside pic.twitter.com/xicYWWl6VW I haven’t 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