Billy Porter wanted to 'shatter' expectations with his show-stopping Oscar red carpet look

The category is: Oscar Showstopper Realness.

Pose star Billy Porter, who plays Pray Tell on the acclaimed FX series, delivered one of the most talked about moments of the Academy Awards red carpet when he arrived in a Christian Siriano tuxedo-ball gown combo (the actor provided fashion commentary as part of ABC’s pre-show coverage).

“I got the call to do the red carpet for ABC and I thought, this is the space to create the conversation of what is masculine? What is feminine? What is everything in between?” Porter told EW after the awards at the Governor’s Ball. “Why is it a woman can wear pants and nobody bats an eye and a man wears a dress and people are disgusted? Why is that? What is that saying in our culture? Man is better and female is disgusting? I just wanted to shatter that. Just shatter that. That’s why we did it and Christian was on board.”

Porter added, “In our business, we like to masquerade as being inclusive but when it comes down to it, if you ask a designer as a man for a dress, they will say, ‘No we don’t want you in that.’ Why? So I’m trying to create a different conversation with a different lane for people who are a different place in their life.”

Collect your trophy, Billy Porter.

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