Ever since stepping onto the Oscars red carpet in a tuxedo reimagined as a velvet gown, Billy Porter has subverted and challenged Hollywood’s rigid dress codes. For the 2019 Tony Awards, Porter wore this show-stopping red velvet and pink tulle evening suit. Among the 30,000 crystals on the train is an embroidery of a uterus motif to support women’s reproductive rights. Porter often mixes extravagant fashions with a message of inclusivity.
After rising to fame as a singer and Broadway star, Porter’s portrayal of Pray Tell in Pose (2018–21) was widely praised for its depth and authenticity. Set in New York’s ballroom scene, the groundbreaking TV series rejects the negative portrayals of LGBTQIA+ characters common throughout screen history and features the largest trans cast in scripted TV history.
Marlene Dietrich also caused a stir when she shared cinema’s first kiss while wearing a tuxedo. As the nightclub singer in Morocco (1930), Dietrich channels the sexual freedom of 1920s Berlin, where the actor started her career. She continued to reimagine this iconic costume throughout her life, later wearing it in white.
Both performers have used their star personas to transcend the binary and fight for women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights.
Will it be trousers for women?
When the openly bisexual Marlene Dietrich shared cinema’s first lesbian kiss wearing a tuxedo, it was scandalous for women to wear trousers. As these fan magazines from the era outline, the US Congress hotly debated the emerging trend, while police in Paris reprimanded Dietrich for her fashion choice. Though she had previously played the Hollywood game and only ever appeared on the red carpet in glamorous gowns, that all changed on 12 January 1933. She left “spectators stuttering with amazement” when she posed in a tuxedo at a premiere. “Every newspaper in America carried a picture of Marlene in trousers,” according to the article.
At the same time that Marlene’s deviation from Hollywood’s expectations was sparking trends, Gladys Bentley was pushing boundaries. During the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 30s, the entertainer performed proudly in her white tuxedo and top hat, singing raunchy songs at drag balls and queer speakeasies. As one of the first openly lesbian-identifying public figures in America, she was a trailblazer and symbol of resistance during a time when gay people – and particularly gay people of colour – were persecuted and discriminated against.
Billy Porter's 2019 Tonys Look Made From "Kinky Boots" Curtain?! | E! Red Carpet & Award Shows
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Collection
Not in ACMI's collection
Previously on display
1 October 2023
Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
193588
Curatorial section
Goddess → Breaking the Binary → Marlene Dietrich