Last Night’s Tony Awards Red Carpet Was Brilliantly Queer

by FASHION Staff June 10, 2019

The backdrop of the red carpet at last nights 73rd annual Tony Awards was a lush carpet of 22,000 roses hand spray-painted by designer Raul Avila and neatly arranged in the shape of a rainbow Pride flag. As this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, it was a fitting tribute to queer culture which, stereotypically or not, has long been intertwined with the history of musical theatre.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, our pick for best-dressed of the evening goes to Billy Porter, the Pose star who shut down the carpet at the Oscars and Met Gala this year. He arrived wearing a tuxedo vest that flared into a skirt, fashioned out of the red velvet curtain from the theatre where he had played Lola in Kinky Boots. In true Porter style, it was both high fashion and deliciously subversive. The rest of the outfits of the evening were either bold and dramatic (Regina King in ruched pink Prada) or delivered thrills in the form of frills (Lucy Liu in a tiered purple confection by Christian Siriano and Sophia Anne Caruso in a frothy gown by Pamella Roland).

Click through to see FASHION’s picks for best dressed at the 2019 Tony Awards.