Vogue Responds to Billy Porter's Criticism of 'Gatekeeper' Anna Wintour
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Billy Porter suggested that Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is a "gatekeeper" of the fashion industry and now the magazine is speaking out.
In response to Porter's comments, a spokesperson for the magazine told E! News, "We of course regret that Billy feels as he does, and Vogue completely recognizes the tremendous amount of work he has done driving the conversation forward around genderless fashion."
The new statements come after Porter's conversation with The Telegraph was published on Monday. In which, the 53-year-old criticized the nearly three-year-old decision to debut Harry Styles as the first man to be featured solo on the cover of the magazine simply because he's "white and straight."
"It doesn’t feel good to me," the Kinky Boots star shared. "You’re using my community—or your people are using my community—to elevate you. You haven’t had to sacrifice anything."
Porter, who has become an icon for gender-fluid fashion over the years, claims that months before he found out Styles posed for the magazine, the Tony winner had a conversation with Wintour, who asked him how she could "better" the brand.
"That b---h said to me at the end, ‘How can we do better?'" Porter shared. "And I was so taken off guard that I didn't say what I should have said."
"Six months later," he said, "Harry Styles is the first man on the cover."
Porter continued, clarifying that his perspective should not be taken as a slight towards the Grammy-winning singer and actor. "It's not Harry Styles' fault that he happens to be white and cute and straight and fit into the infrastructure that way," he said. "I call out the gatekeepers."
As the Pose actor said, this isn't the first time he's spoken out against the industry, previously telling The Sunday Times in Oct. 2021, "I feel like the fashion industry has accepted me because they have to."
Porter added, "I'm not necessarily convinced and here is why: I created the conversation [about non-binary fashion], and yet Vogue still put Harry Styles, a straight white man, in a dress on their cover for the first time."
But it is the first time Porter has shared what he wished he had told the long-running media executive a long time ago: "Use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement."
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