Billy Porter was destined to be here. “I’ve always wanted to be a part of the conversation, and now that I’m here, the world’s gonna know that Billy Porter did not come to play,” he laughed. “She came to slay, slay, slay, honey!”

Porter is on the rooftop of Showroom Seven in midtown Manhattan, ready for his close-up. With my 35mm film in one hand and camera in the other, I was taking his portrait for the exciting announcement of his ambassadorship.

He’s been preparing to break into the fashion stratosphere and show everyone exactly why he deserves to sit at the fashion table (if you will).

From the moment Porter walked in, you could feel his contagious, unrelenting energy. It’s this same energy that would eventually serve as the motivator to one day pack up his bags and leave his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pa.

Singing has always played a part in the life of the Grammy and Tony Award-winning actor, singer, writer, and director. He realized he had pipes at 10, and when he saw Jennifer Holliday perform And I Am Telling You of Dreamgirls at the 1982 Tony Awards, he knew he could dream outside of his circumstances.

He grew up in the Pentecostal Church and felt his sexuality was under attack even before he even realized he was gay. “The you’re-going-to-hell and gay-is-an-abomination rhetoric started really early for me,” he recalled.

And even still, Porter bravely came out in 1985 in the thick of the AIDS crisis. “We were launched into the fight for our lives, so there wasn’t really much of a choice but to come out, for me at least,” he recalled. “I was watching my friends pass away and watching the government not do anything so it was really a call to action.”

After receiving his bachelor’s in fine arts from Carnegie Mellon’s drama department, Porter left Pittsburgh and moved to New York City on December 20, 1990, an important date as he’s been out of his hometown ever since.

With a three-decade career (and counting) under his belt, Porter boasts an impressive resume of accolades and experience, including being a part of the original cast of Miss Saigon, Grease and Kinky Boots on Broadway; and most recently Netflix’s The Get Down and FX’s American Horror Story: Apocalypse.

For Porter, it’s not about the awards or outside validation, but more about the spotlight his career has given him. “It’s a different kind of validation that requires people to pay attention,” he said. “You can’t ignore me and act I’m not here, and that’s thrilling.”

In 2018, his character Pray Tell on FX’s groundbreaking series Pose changed everything.

Centered on the disenfranchised Ballroom community in New York, the show helped shine a light on a then-underground culture that so many appropriated, and helped it take its rightful place in the world.

“The root of the show is family. As queer people, we have to choose our family because the one that we’ve been birthed to don’t understand and don’t have the tools to give us what we need to love us unconditionally,” Porter said. “I think Pose gives hope to people that don’t understand that process or the idea that it’s ok that your blood doesn’t love you – leave them and go find some people who get it. Go find your tribe.”

As the Official Ambassador for NYFW: Men’s, Porter is now ready to take the fashion world by the reigns and shake things up. For him, it’s most important to be as authentic and as inclusive as possible, engaging only with designers who are interested in pushing the envelope in what he considers an arts world where people masquerade as being inclusive when, in fact, that’s not always the case.

To him, that arts world, as he refers to it, often finds ways to not include people. “I’m trying to be a person that challenges that,” Porter said with conviction. “I want to work with designers who look at an almost 50-year-old star and say: let’s work with that person because there’s a story there too. Dressing doesn’t stop at 25. We gotta keep wearing clothes until we’re dead, so why are we not having the conversation until the end?”

Starting this Monday, Porter will be attending runway shows and presentations, engaging with participating designers and have a front-row view at the best collections of the New York season.

He will stay true to his sartorial flare – the same one that got all eyes on him when he wore designer Randi Rahm on the 2019 Golden Globes red carpet.

The key to his success is authenticity. It’s what brought him this far, and Porter is in it for the long haul, with no plans to stop.

As he put it, “I want to do the shit I want to do while representing the queer community from a vantage point that isn’t talked very often: black, male, gay, out, and fierce.”

Cover image credit: Porter wears suit jacket and scarf by David Hart, hat by Esenshel

Photography by Aldo Araujo
Styling by Sam Ratelle / RRR Creative
Grooming by LaSonya Gunter
Styling Associate: Ashley Marie, Alina Frolova
Production Assistant: Lily Cole

Special thanks to Showroom Seven / Seventh House PR