Billy Porter apologises to Harry Styles

5 November 2021

Billy Porter has apologised to Harry Styles for criticising his Vogue cover.

Billy Porter

The 'Pose' actor recently insisted the fashion bible had chosen the wrong person to embrace non-binary fashion with their December 2020 cover when the 'Watermelon Sugar' singer posed in a dress, but he's now clarified his comments and insisted it was nothing personal against the former One Direction hunk, but he was making a wider point about representation.

Admitting he was surprised his comments "blew up" the way they did, Billy said on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert': "Harry Styles, I apologise to you for having your name in my mouth. It's not about you. The conversation is not about you.

"The conversation is actually deeper than that.

"It is about the systems of oppression and erasure of people of color who contribute to the culture. Now, that's a lot to unpack. I'm willing to unpack it, sans the dragging and cancel culture of the Internet, because I do not now, nor will ever, adjudicate my life or humanity in sound bites on social media.

"So, when you're ready to have the real conversation, call a b****. Okay? I'm ready to have it!

"I'm sorry, Harry. I didn't mean no harm. I'm a gay man. We like Harry, he's cute!"

The 52-year-old star - who famously caused a stir at the 2019 Oscars with his custom Christian Siriano tuxedo gown - previously insisted he "changed the whole game" when it came to the trend of men experimenting with skirts but had only been "accepted" by the fashion world because they had no choice.

He said: “I changed the whole game. I. Personally. Changed. The. Whole. Game. And that is not ego, that is just fact.

"I was the first one doing it and now everybody is doing it...

“I feel like the fashion industry has accepted me because they have to. I’m not necessarily convinced and here is why. 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. 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.”