'Pose' Star Billy Porter Wows In Christian Siriano Tuxedo Gown On 2019 Oscars Red Carpet

‘Pose’ star Billy Porter grabbed the limelight on the 91st Academy Awards red carpet, wearing a stunning velvet tuxedo gown by Christian Siriano. The actor’s attire featured a nipped jacket top and ball-gown skirt, accessorized with a statement diamong ring and oversized bow tie.

"My goal is to be a walking piece of political art every time I show up," Porter told Vogue. "To challenge expectations. What is masculinity? What does that mean? Women show up every day in pants, but the minute a man wears a dress, the seas part."

Porter posed on the red carpet with his long-time friend and husband Adam Smith. The actor, who won a Tony for Best Lead Actor in a Musical and a Grammy in 2013 for his role as Lola in ‘Kinky Boots’ married Smith in January 2017. People narrated the delightful story of how Porter proposed to Smith, after knowing him for almost a decade.

In one of the shorter high-profile engagements of only 16 days, Porter and Smith decided they wanted to wed before President-elect Donald Trump assumed the presidency. “We felt like, with everything that we’re gonna have to fight for coming up, the unknown that we’re going into, we want to be married doing that,” says Porter, who exchanged vows with Smith — who planned the wedding — two weeks later in front of 45 guests at a close friend’s Manhattan penthouse. “We want to be doing that side-by-side, in every single way.”

Porter’s choice of New York-based Christian Siriano is a welcome one, with the designer, who prides himself on supporting exclusivity, often dressing prominent personalities not confirming to common size and gender-specific norms.