Billy Porter Blows Up Gender on Oscars Red Carpet

Pose star Billy Porter has spoken about his desire to subvert gender roles through fashion, and he lived up to his word at Sunday's Academy Awards.

Porter, a Grammy- and Tony-winner, wore a Christian Siriano-designed tuxedo gown to the Oscars and strutted the incredible look down the red carpet. Siriano is an openly gay designer, who's embraced gender fluidity and different body sizes in his clothes.

Porter previously wore dresses to events before, but never to such a high-profile ceremony like the Oscars. Porter knows when he wears clothes traditionally worn by women, it's more than a sartorial whim. Wearing a golden gown to a party for the American Film Institute, Porter commented on Instagram that the outfit was for "the lives of our marginalized brothers and sisters from the LGBTQAI+ community."

The actor elaborated about this Oscars gown in an essay for Vogue. Porter writes, "Now I'm in a space where, being on Pose, I'm invited to red carpets and I have something to say through clothes. My goal is to be a walking piece of political art every time I show up. To challenge expectations. What is masculinity? What does that mean?"