Model Kaia Gerber walks the runway at the Alexander Wang Fall 2019 show at One Hanson Place on December 1, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP) (Photo credit should read ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images)

Slinky velvet dresses, pinstripe shirts and Baby Spice pig-tails aside, there was an extremely random addition to the front row seating plan at Alexander Wang’s show in New York yesterday. Imagine being invited to a Wang show; In this hypothetical, you’re dressed and ready to cross the bridge from Manhattan (where you live) to Brooklyn to preview the designer’s latest downtown staples. You arrive and eagerly search for your name on the seating plan where you soon realise you are placed next to… a leg-less robot.

Yes, a creation from Hanson Robotics has taken the technology and fashion world by storm. Going by the name of Sophia, the robot who was born in the Hong Kong-based engineering company last year is a metal torso with intelligence. Sophia was snapped front row at the Wang show – in the label’s blazer of course – her head moving from right to left as each look passed. She was wedged next to American singer Teyana Taylor who I’m sure was racking her brain on what the hell she’d talk to Sophia about.

It’s not Sophia’s first fashion soiree either. The “social robot with artificial intelligence” can process visual data like faces, conversations and emotions and uses this to form relationships. She was spotted investing in some ruffles – and legs! – at Shanghai Fashion Week in October.

She also made a (cringe-worthy) appearance on Jimmy Fallon two weeks ago where she sang a Christina Aguilera cover of Say Something. For what purpose Sophia really serves, we’re still unsure. It’s weird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-zyTlZQYpE