Billy Porter is taking his resistance to the red carpet.
The “Pose” actor, 49, made a huge splash at Sunday’s Golden Globes in a custom embroidered suit and cape from Randi Rahm. But Porter doesn’t want to just look fabulous — he also wants to use the red carpet as a platform for activism.
“With [Billy], every single time we work on something together, the first thing we do is think: What is the statement we’re making with this? What can people take away from this?” Porter’s stylist Sam Ratelle told Page Six Style.
“Like when he started wearing dresses recently, that was very specific because of all the stuff that was going on in the White House regarding transgender rights. We started talking about it and we’re like, we have to start representing these people because you have to normalize that somehow publicly. There has to be visibility.”
Especially since the “Kinky Boots” star wasn’t always able to express himself through fashion. “He’s a poor, gay, black kid from Pittsburgh who was raped as a child and lived in an impoverished family,” Ratelle explained. “It’s a master class to look at his life and what he did with the little he had, how he took all those opportunities and resources and just uplifted himself to get to this point.”
Continued Ratelle of Porter, “He grew up in the ’80s. He had to squash so much of himself for so long and curb who he was as a person so other people wouldn’t be uncomfortable around him and now he’s just like, ‘I’m tired. I’m not doing it anymore.'”
And judging by the responses to his Golden Globes look on social media, it’s clear that the actor and his sense of style are resonating with fans as well.
The Best Actor’s couture Randi Rahm look took six months to create. “From the beginning, we knew we wanted a cape because for me, as a young gay child, I loved Billy Porter,” Ratelle explained. “He’s like a superhero to us. And so I was like, why not a cape? And if there’s anybody who can pull off a cape, it’s Billy Porter.”
Each of the four pieces Porter wore on the carpet — the stretch tulle undershirt, two-piece suit and the aforementioned cape — featured intricate floral embroidery. “We always make fun of these little fashion quotes, like from ‘The Devil Wears Prada,'” Ratelle said. “You know: ‘Florals, for spring? Groundbreaking.’ And so he was like, ‘Look, we’re in Los Angeles. Spring is coming. Let’s give it to the children, honey.'”
But it was the cape’s neon lining that really made viewers’ heads turn. “We knew that it would just be such a moment for him to open that up that we couldn’t keep it with the same tone, it had to be a pop of something, so we went with hot pink,” Ratelle said.
As for the “Pose” star’s jewelry? “The gardenias that he wore on the lapel are actually classic Oscar Hayman that were designed in 1925, and so they brought them out of the archives for him and they just so happened to go with the rest of the piece. And the [brand’s] iconic ballerina ring was actually brought back for him and remanufactured so that it would fit him, as it’s usually a lady’s ring.”
Ultimately, it all added up to one incredibly high-impact look — which, according to Ratelle, is always the goal. “We want to make sure it’s not something ordinary,” he said. “[Billy] has such a strong personality that it would just be a shame to completely stunt that. He’s just like, ‘I’ve been waiting 30 years to do this and live my best life. I want all of the jewels, I want all of the garments.’ And he should have what he wants!”
https://pagesix.com/2019/01/08/pose-star-billy-porter-uses-fashion-to-fight-trump/
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