Billy Porter and His Impeccable Style Take the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
If you’re like much of America, chances are you spend some time on Thanksgiving morning watching the Macy’s parade. With all the themed balloons and all-star performances, it’s a fun, wholesome way to kick off the holiday season while you enjoy a lazy breakfast with family or prep for the main event.
Over its 93 years, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has become a beloved event for many, including Billy Porter. The triple-threat is making history this year by performing atop the inaugural Coach float, which is the first time a luxury fashion brand has had a presence in the parade. The float is called “Rexy in the City” and features the house’s iconic dinosaur amidst a glittery, carnival-style version of New York, and there couldn’t be a better star to mark the moment than Porter, who has been a local celebrity since long before Pose brought him into the mainstream spotlight, thanks to decades on Broadway.
Ahead of the parade, we caught up with the talent, who seemed excited about the experience. “I haven’t actually seen the float yet, but everyone loves dinosaurs,” he said. “I’m going to be three stories up, so I’m not going to be looking down much.”
Photo via Instagram / @coach
And while Porter is excited about the over-the-top fun, there’s another, much more practical reason that he is ready for the parade. “Performing last time was fun, but it was cold,” he said, referring to six years ago, when he performed a Kinky Boots medley while starring in the award-winning show. “I was out there in a minidress. This time, I’m excited to be performing in actual clothes.”
Clothes are one of the first things that come to mind when the world thinks of Porter, as he has redefined men’s fashion with the maximalist looks he has worn at awards shows, on magazine covers, and pretty much everywhere he goes. It’s hard to forget the Christian Siriano tuxedo dress he wore on the Oscars red carpet, the campy “Old Testament Realness” that he served in collaboration with the Blonds at this year’s Met Gala, or the glittery Michael Kors suit (and coordinating asymmetrical Stephen Jones Millinery chapeau) he sported when picking up a Lead Actor Emmy for Pose.
Porter’s fashion track record is almost as impressive as the fact that he is just one letter away from having an EGOT (read: someone find him the perfect movie role, stat). Obviously, this means he had a full-blown look (Coach, of course) in store for the parade, and while it is thankfully practical for a brisk November day, you won’t miss him in a crowded room. Along with leather jeans, platform boots, and a shearling coat covered in the brand’s signature Cs, the New York icon is wearing a glittery gold cap with a massive pom-pom, because of course he is. It’s the sparkliest way to go big or go home (or, with this being Thanksgiving and all, do both).
When it came to deciding just what he would perform on the Coach float, Porter had his work cut out for him. “It’s my #1 dance song,” he says of why he chose “Love Yourself,” which debuted earlier this year and topped Billboard’s Dance Club charts in September. “If I didn’t have a #1 dance song, maybe I would do something different, but this was perfect.”
With the parade kicking off the holiday season, Porter is excited about the time to rest that awaits him. That makes perfect sense, considering the busy year he has had with the success of Pose. Helping to show the diverse experiences of LGBTQ people of color in the 1980s alongside a cast including Indya Moore and Mj Rodriguez has meant a lot to the talent, who became the first openly gay black man to win an Emmy lead acting award thanks to his work on the show. He’s excited to keep telling those stories as the show heads towards season three with an ever-increasing amount of attention, but in the meantime, he’s embracing the opportunity for R&R.
Just what will Porter be doing with his holiday free time? First up is a feast with his family, which he emphasizes is an all-out African American Thanksgiving meal. His other plans include going to see some good movies—he loves how so many Oscar contenders premiere at this time of year—and catching a few Broadway shows. “If you’re in New York, Thanksgiving weekend is a good time to see a show,” he says. He has plans to see Moulin Rouge and is also excited about Hadestown (the much-hyped reigning Tony champ for Best Musical, if you haven’t heard), but otherwise is waiting on his busy schedule to wind down so he can look into what to catch up on.
However, one thing Porter won’t be putting too much thought into is what he wears for holiday activities. He actually loves how the family-oriented season creates a low-pressure environment, and his top holiday style tip is to keep it simple. So while the style icon anticipates looking sharp for each event, he plans on being spontaneous about it—when we spoke, he actually hadn’t even decided on an outfit for a dinner that night.
Of course, Porter is already thinking about fashion for the upcoming awards season, and surely is working with some top designers on avant-garde red carpet moments. “I have a lot of amazing things planned that I’m not going to tell you about!” he says. So while we will have to wait a bit longer for that, in the meantime his fun parade performance (and equally exciting outfit) have provided some quality content to view again and again.
