Billy Porter has re-addressed previous comments he made about Harry Styles' US Vogue cover, focusing his criticism on Anna Wintour instead.
Harry Styles rose to fame on the X-Factor in 2010 as part of boyband One Direction before breaking off as a solo artist in 2016. And in 2019, the 'Watermelon Sugar' singer became the first-ever solo male cover star of US Vogue, appearing on the front page wearing a dress.
At the time, actor Billy Porter - best known for his role in drama Pose - spoke out against the magazine's decision choosing Styles for the cover. However, Porter has since clarified where and with whom his problem truly lies.
In an interview with The Sunday Times back in 2020, Porter slammed the magazine's decision to put Styles on the front cover wearing a dress.
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Porter claimed it was him who had 'personally changed the whole game' by wearing gender-neutral clothing, leading to a flood of men, including Styles, wearing skirts and dresses more frequently that year.
He also explained he felt like the fashion industry has 'accepted' him, but wasn't completely 'convinced' because of US Vogue's celebrity cover choice.
Porter said: "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.
"I’m not dragging Harry Styles, but he is the one you’re going to try and use to represent this new conversation? He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do. This is politics for me. This is my life.
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"I had to fight my entire life to get to the place where I could wear a dress to the Oscars and not be gunned now. All he has to do is be white and straight."
Porter has since reflected on his comments made back in 2020, emphasising his problem isn't specifically with Styles.
In an interview with The Telegraph published on Friday, 11 August, 2023, the actor explains he did a Q&A session with Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Anna Wintour a few months before Styles' cover came out.
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Porter continues: "That b***h said to me at the end, ‘How can we do better?’ And I was so taken off guard that I didn’t say what I should have said."
What the actor wishes he said was Wintour and Vogue should be using their 'power' to 'uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement'.
"Six months later, Harry Styles is the first man on the cover," he adds.
Porter publicly apologised to Styles for having his 'name in [his] mouth' while on Late Night With Stephen Cohen in 2021, adding the conversation isn't about him, but 'about the systems of oppression and erasure of people of color who contribute to the culture'.
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Porter continued in his recent interview with The Telegraph: "It’s not Harry Styles’s fault that he happens to be white and cute and straight and fit into the infrastructure that way…
"I call out the gatekeepers."
Porter added he doesn't now consider himself to have championed gender neutral fashion, noting stars such as David Bowie and Sylvester did it before him.
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However, Porter stands strongly by his other points, resolving: "[Styles is] white and he's straight. That's why he's on the cover. Non-binary blah blah blah blah. No. It doesn't feel good to me.
"You're using my community - or your people are using my community - to elevate you. You haven't had to sacrifice anything."
UNILAD has contacted Vogue and Anna Wintour for comment.
Topics: Fashion, Celebrity, UK News, US News, World News