The Pose and Kinky Boots star, 53, fumed while claiming he had spoken to the magazine’s editor-in-chief Wintour, 73, about how Vogue could push forward the “de-gendering of fashion movement” months before the former One Direction singer, 29, was made US Vogue’s first-ever solo male cover star in 2019.
He told the Daily Telegraph about his fury Vogue had used the ‘Watermelon Sugar’ singer as the face of genderfluid and non-binary fashion: “It’s not Harry Styles’ fault that he happens to be white and cute and straight and fit into the infrastructure that way.
”I call out the gatekeepers. Non-binary blahblahblahblah [sic]. No. It doesn’t feel good to me. You’re using my community – or your people are using my community – to elevate you.
Porter, who has made headlines for wearing a dress on red carpets, added he had been invited to a question and answer session with Wintour in front of Condé Nast staff a few months before Styles’ Vogue cover was unveiled.
He said: “That b**** said to me at the end, ‘How can we do better?’ And I was so taken off guard that I didn’t say what I should have said… ‘Use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement.’
“Six months later, Harry Styles is the first man on the cover.”
Porter previously blasted the former One Direction member’s cover, which saw the singer dressed in a Gucci gown, in 2021.
Billy Porter has slammed Vogue for using 'pretty white boy' Harry Styles to promote pride. Photo / AP
He told the Sunday Times in October of that year: “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, and yet Vogue still put Harry Styles, a straight white man, in a dress on their cover for the first time.”
The Emmy winner then claimed that he was attacking Vogue and not Styles.
He added: “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 down. All he has to do is be white and straight.”
Porter apologised for his remarks a month later, saying 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 colour who contribute to the culture.”
