Not long ago, actors walking the red carpet tried to shame interviewers into asking them about more than their clothes — even though so many of those clothing choices were directly tied to lucrative endorsement deals and the red carpet is, in fact, just a star-studded catwalk.
Then, in 2018, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, those same actors decided to use their clothes to send a message about gender equity — and so the question of the carpet became: Why are you wearing black?
At the first Golden Globe Awards of the new decade, there seemed to be a reckoning with reality — a fashion detente. Stop running away from fashion. Stop trying to drain it of joy.
It's OK to enjoy fashion. It always has been.
There's so much distressing news all around. Citizens are multitasking every minute of the day, fretting about climate change, impeachment, Iran, Iraq, the upcoming presidential election, something. Do they really need to hear some actor living their best life go on a 15-second superficial tear about the state of the universe? Host Ricky Gervais didn't think so and advised the winners to thank their god and their agent and then get the heck offstage.
Gervais was impolitic. So perhaps this lesson was most diplomatically and refreshingly conveyed by the slayer of all red carpets: Billy Porter. As he noted Monday night, "fashion can be activism."
And with every style choice he's made recently, as he's done the award show rounds fueled by his role on "Pose," he's made himself unforgettable as a gender-blurring gay man who brims with creativity and personality — memorable to even those who have never seen his show. Porter captures the imagination because his style choices are as outré as they come, but they're done with precision and intent and pleasure.
For the Globes, he arrived dressed in a white formal pantsuit designed by Alex Vinash, with a cathedral-length train brimming with feathers. The two had begun collaborating long before the nominees and presenters were announced because statement-making fashion takes time, and what is a career in Hollywood other than one built on hope and a dream?
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