The Secrets Behind Billy Porter's Game-Changing Style: 'This Is Not About Me Wearing a Dress!'

Billy Porter's revolutionized the red carpet with his boundary breaking silhouettes and playful experimentation. But it took some time for the Pose star to embrace his full fashion fierceness.

"I'm not a drag queen, but it never occurred to me that Billy could play with the masculine and the feminine in my fashion silhouette," Porter, 52, tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week's issue ahead of the release of his new memoir, Unprotected.

Once Porter began working on Pose, he realized it was the perfect time to start experimenting with fluid dressing on the red carpet. "Pose happened and I was like, 'Well, if there's any space where the character that I'm playing supported the choices of being gender fluid on the red carpet, it would be the show. I have to do this now. And that's how it evolved," he says.

Porter has become the one to watch on the red carpet, known for flipping the style script with his daring looks, like the now-famous 2019 Oscars tuxedo dress and the metallic feather bodice and full ball skirt he wore at the same award show one year later.

"This is not about me wearing a dress on the red carpet. It's actually not a dress. Balance is what I'm going for," he explains. "The conversation is in the balance."

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While Porter says he loves and respects the drag culture, he explains that his approach to dressing is different.

"No shade to drag queens — I love drag. But I'm a cis-gendered gay man choosing to play with a feminine silhouette in my clothing and gender. [It's] non-binary fluid silhouettes in my clothing. That's different," he shares.

Porter adds: "All I'm doing is picking the clothes I want to wear. People say, 'I could never pull that off.' You know how you pull it off? Put it on."