By now, the actor Billy Porter has become as famous for theatrical red carpet looks as he is for his theatrical career. There was the refined black velvet tuxedo dress he wore to the 2019 Academy Awards, his golden sun god costume from the Met Gala later that year. And most recently, for the Grammys, he wore a meme-inspiring twinkling blue hat with an electric fringe curtain.
These looks all made a statement — about gender role defiance, about camp, about embracing glamour and mystery, and blocking out the haters. Which means that for every time Mr. Porter R.S.V.P.s to a new red carpet event, there’s a certain cloud of anticipation: What story will he tell next?
For the 2020 Oscars, “this look is all about royalty,” Mr. Porter wrote in an email before the show.
On Sunday, he glided onto the red carpet in a sleeveless, high-neck, gold-foil-feathered bodice and billowing graphic skirt inspired by Kensington Palace.
Last year, Mr. Porter’s stylist, Sam Ratelle, took a tour of the 415-year-old residential palace (and current London home to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their royal brood). He found himself entranced by the spectacle, he said, fantasizing about parties thrown there during the Georgian era. The wheels started turning.
“I thought, ‘The Oscars are kind of a royal event,’” Mr. Ratelle said. So he called a British designer whom he’d recently befriended, Giles Deacon, and told him he had an idea. Why not infuse the regalness of Kensington Palace into a gown for Mr. Porter, whom Mr. Ratelle called “a queen with a ‘kw’”?
Mr. Deacon had already done research at the palace for a few of his previous collections. He knew of the Cupola Room, which Mr. Ratelle had particularly liked, as a grand dome — all gold and wood and marble — punctuated by gilded statues of Roman deities.
“I love the idea of Billy being this kind of messenger sent from the gods,” Mr. Deacon said. He wanted to turn the walls of the room into a print, which he would later enlarge for Mr. Porter’s balloon skirt.
The 2020 Oscars Red Carpet Photos
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Mr. Deacon, a designer who said his work is often inspired by “ethereal beauty” and “otherworldliness,” doesn’t regularly work with celebrities for red carpet events. Though once, he joked, he dressed “the biggest diva I’ve ever worked with”: Miss Piggy for the 2012 London premiere of “The Muppets.” (He also designed the wedding dress of Pippa Middleton, the royal sister-in-law.)
This time around, Mr. Deacon said he felt it was “very poignant to be dressing Billy.”
To literally wrap Mr. Porter, a queer black man, in royalty is to challenge the perception of who can be royal. Mr. Ratelle said it’s meaningful for him to both celebrate and subvert that perception.
While the look has been in the works for months, it is being introduced at a dramatic moment in royal history. Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are splintering from the family amid claims that Meghan, an American woman of color — and a divorced actress — has never been accepted by the royals.
When asked about the connection, Mr. Ratelle brought up Harry’s mother, Princess Diana.
“She wasn’t welcome, always. It’s happening again,” he said. “If you’re not from that lineage, are you completely exempt from having anything fabulous?”
Mr. Ratelle said he also wanted to find a way to make royalty feel “fun and modern.” To that end, he was thrilled about the towering Jimmy Choo shoes Mr. Porter wore with the look — “a parallel of a stripper shoe in Georgian times,” he said.
And, while it might seem like dressing Mr. Porter in a giant skirt is another attempt to challenge the constraints of gender roles, that’s not what this red carpet is about for Mr. Ratelle. “I don’t see female energy,” he said of the skirt. “I see a dude. I see a dude wearing armor, wearing something that’s artistic and innately couture.”
Couture is important to Mr. Ratelle, and he views this Oscars look as a gateway into that world for him and Mr. Porter. They haven’t quite been able to break into it yet, in part, Mr. Ratelle said, because of the reluctance of high-fashion designers to put a man in a dress.
“The last two years have been about getting to this point. Now that we’re here, it’s the next place to go,” he said, referring to couture. “We’ve not worked with Valentino. We’ve not worked with Chanel.”
After posing on Sunday’s red carpet, Mr. Ratelle said Mr. Porter would remove his skirt to reveal similarly printed Georgian-inspired pants for his preshow hosting duties.
It’s one of many costume changes he and Mr. Ratelle have planned for the night.
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