Black Christian Siriano gown of Billy Porter

American actor Billy Porter wore a tuxedo dress in black velvet designed by Christian Siriano on the red carpet of the 91st Academy Awards on February 24, 2019.

At the time, Porter had recently come into public view for his breakout role in the FX television series Pose and had been receiving attention for his boundary-pushing red carpet attire during the 2018–19 film awards season.

Following his appearance at the 76th Golden Globe Awards in a custom silver suit with fuchsia-lined cape, he was invited to host red carpet interviews at the upcoming Oscars pre-show.

[3][4] Porter made several red carpet appearances during the 2018–19 film awards season on the strength of his performance in Pose, wearing outfits – both suits and dresses – by designers including Tom Ford and Michael Kors.

[5] On January 6, 2019, he walked the red carpet at the 76th Golden Globe Awards in a custom silver suit with fuchsia-lined cape designed by Randi Rahm.

Porter, who is gay, said he wanted to wear an outfit that would prompt a conversation about red carpet fashion and its relationship to masculinity for his first major awards show appearance.

[7] Porter wanted to wear a custom gown, and selected designer Christian Siriano based on his reputation for dressing celebrities whose bodies and style do not fit into conventional norms of beauty and fashion.

[7] Fashion historian Lydia Edwards suggested that the use of black connected the dress to historical menswear and contemporary womenswear, and gave the ensemble a dignified yet dramatic impact.

[14] He also called his choice to wear a dress to the Oscars a business decision, saying that as an entertainer, seeking attention via fashion was part of how he earned a living.

[17] Choire Sicha of The New York Times called his arrival "an exciting start" to the night, and expressed disappointment that few other guests dressed to subvert gender roles in the same way.

Queer theorist Kathryn Bond Stockton agreed with Porter's statement that the dress was an expression of power, rhetorically asking if it could "move whole systems".

[46] Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén placed the tuxedo dress in counterpoint to a long history of women wearing suits at the Oscars.

Lundén also noted that although Porter wore another gown to the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020, the press had by then "incorporated his fashion statement into the usual pool of red-carpet critique", so it was no longer treated as unusual.

[47] In October 2021, Porter criticized Vogue for featuring English musician Harry Styles in a blue Gucci dress as their first male solo cover model.

[48] He felt selecting a "straight white man" to represent genderfluid fashion was inappropriate, saying that he "had to fight my entire life to get to the place where I could wear a dress to the Oscars and not be gunned down.

[52] Porter attended the 80th Golden Globe Awards in 2023 as a presenter, wearing a fuchsia pink velvet tuxedo gown also by Siriano.

A black velvet ball gown, the top half styled like a tuxedo, with a voluminous white-trimmed skirt
The tuxedo dress, pictured at Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear , Victoria and Albert Museum , March 2022
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Designer Christian Siriano at OZY Fest (2018)
A painting of a woman, two children, and a dog. The woman wears a black dress with white trim
Madame Georges Charpentier and Her Children , Auguste Renoir, 1878.
a man in a rainbow-colored tulle gown with a long train
Porter at Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 , gown by Siriano [ 34 ]
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Blue Gucci dress worn by Styles on the cover of Vogue , Victoria and Albert Museum , 2022