On Sept. 22, 2026, during Act IV of Vogue World 2026: Milano, titled "The Age of Intelligence," four humanoid robots made by Unitree Robotics walked the runway inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It was a sign that a major fashion franchise, Condé Nast's Vogue World, now treats live humanoids as a named act about early robotics, not only as backstage novelty. The same week, Unitree robots performed in the America's Got Talent finale.
The show's organizers have not said which Unitree model walked, such as the H1 or G1. According to one news report, the robots were not dressed in fashion looks. Vogue World creative director Juan Costa Paz said in an interview that the robots came into the conversation to represent "the beginning of robotics," still "very clunky" in the way early cellphones were suitcase-sized, and meant as an inflection point. "It's fun," he added, "because robots are fun. But it's also terrifying and is meant to say, AI is not going away, and the robots are not going away." A second report said the Unitree machines entered to Gigi D'Agostino's "L'Amour Toujours," then walked, gestured, and waved for reaction. It argued the sequence offered little beyond novelty.
Meta Glasses sponsored the show and the credits listed OpenAI as providing "additional support," according to a news report. The official America's Got Talent YouTube channel posted Unitree finale and earlier-round performances the same cycle.
It is not yet clear whether Vogue World San Francisco will take the robotics theme beyond a walk-on, whether Unitree will say which model appeared in Milan, or how fashion audiences will weigh Costa Paz's inflection-point framing against the critique that the act offered little beyond novelty.