On the surface, it’s hard to think of a better match between an event and a public personality than the Met Gala and “Just needs the O” EGT winner Billy Porter. After all, Porter has spent years delivering the most eye-catching and bold looks imaginable—both on the set of his former FX series Pose, and beyond. Which makes it a bit shocking to learn that not only has Porter only attended the planet’s ground zero for fashion excess once, but that he hasn’t been extended even a single invitation for a return visit since.
This is per Vulture, reporting on an appearance that Porter recently made on Bevy Smith’s Bevelations SiriusXM show, where he talked about his feelings about the Vogue-curated fashion event. “The reality is, when people ask me, you need to know I was not invited and I’m good,” Porter said, referencing the wide response to his 2019 appearance at the show, which was apparently facilitated by Pose‘s Ryan Murphy. And while he stated that he was “good” with the lack of invitation, Porter also made it clear that his feelings have been hurt about the lack of an invite—namechecking 2025’s “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” as an obvious fit.
“I don’t go to places where I’m not welcome,” Porter said of not getting the call from Vogue or its famed (now former) editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. “I’ve earned the invitation and it’s ok that I don’t have it because there’s a level that I’ve reached that doesn’t require validation from the outside. I’m going to sit and live in that because it helps keep me sane, too.”
Porter made a huge splash at the 2019 version of the show, being carried out on the red carpet on a palanquin and bedecked in gold. Not that he’s been resting idle since then: He’s appeared in a number of TV shows, directed a film, recorded music, starred in a London revival of Cabaret, and more. Still, it really does feel like a missed opportunity not to have such a clear style icon be part of “fashion’s biggest night.” The next installment of the event is on May 4, with the theme “Fashion Is Art”; it’s not hard to imagine Porter absolutely killing that concept.
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