Why this year’s Oscars are paving the way for men to experiment with their eveningwear (and, yes, even wear dresses).

At the 91st Academy Awards on Sunday night, the American stage performer Mr Billy Porter stepped onto the red carpet in what – at least from the torso up – could have been any other black, peak-lapelled tuxedo. From the waist down, however, a curtain of velvet billowed out from beneath the jacket into a grand, full-skirted custom evening gown by the designer Mr Christian Siriano. It wasn’t drag, but it was certainly a man in a dress. It was also regal, brave and a theatrical middle finger to gendered black-tie norms. “People are going to be really uncomfortable with my black ass in a ball gown,” he told Vogue. “But it’s not anybody’s business but mine.”

Over the past year, Hollywood’s men have been working double time to de-penguin the red carpet and have successfully turned it into a dressing-up playground, purposefully defying expectations of what men “should” be wearing, and dismantling what that means in the first place. In other words, black tie that also looks like Downton Abbey cosplay is apparently in. This doesn’t, however, mean that traditional black tie is out. It is merely diversifying – see Messrs Rami Malek, James McAvoy and Joe Alwyn for proof of that.

From Mr Ezra Miller in that black lipstick and Moncler Genius puffer-gown look, to Olympic ice skater Mr Adam Rippon wearing a BDSM-style harness tuxedo to the Oscars last year, it’s no longer the women who get asked the dreaded “Who are you wearing?” And that’s because the answers are genuinely interesting. Mr Timothée Chalamet, probably the most notable natty red-carpet dresser in recent history, has worn everything from a Louis Vuitton harness to an all-white Berluti suit, and he has worn it all well. Mr Chadwick Boseman is a fan of glittering capes. The man mountain that is Mr Jason Momoa wore a velvet suit in rose (rose!) to the Oscars. (And, if all that terrifies you, just wait until the 2019 Met Gala. This year’s theme is “camp”.)

The new red-carpet rules for men dictate that the old rules no longer apply. Or they do, but they’ve been reversed. “So the men are wearing the gowns and the women are wearing the pants. I like it,” tweeted The New York Times’ fashion director Ms Vanessa Friedman, juxtaposing a picture of Mr Porter with a trouser-wearing Ms Melissa McCarthy. Eventually, this kind of gender-non-conforming posturing will happen so often that it no longer becomes noteworthy. Until then, men are making getting dressed up fun again, and everyone is talking about it. That can only be a good thing.

The people featured in this story are not associated with and do not endorse MR PORTER or the products shown

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