Antoni Porowski has two major guidelines when it comes to dressing, which he learned from the stylist Chloe Hartstein shortly after joining the cast of Netflix’sQueer Eye.
The first is reference. “If you give me a historical reference, I fully get excited,” attests Porowski. As an example, he cites a look inspired by Seinfeld’s Kramer — a bold-striped knit polo paired with an avocado cardigan he wore to an event thrown by the luxury watchmaker Omega, which celebrated the anniversary of the moon landing.
The second? “Timeless comfort” — with an eye to the future. “Whatever you’re wearing, try to…picture it framed in your house. In 10 years from now, when you look back on it, how are you gonna feel?” he poses. He’s also a big fan of “the power of tailoring and sometimes self-tailoring” — as well as belts — to help give proportion to his frame.
RALPH LAUREN Light Blue Button Up; WILLY CHAVARRIA Red and White Tacombi Pleated Basketball Shorts; RALPH LAUREN Navy and Green Silk Wide Diagonal-Stripe Crest Tie; CALVIN KLEIN Underwear; MARYAM NASSIR ZADEH Black Leather Oxford; ELI BURCH X THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE Yellow Logo Bracelet; TALENT’S OWN Gold Bracelet; ELI BURCH Burch Leather NecklaceMatt Monath
For his Out fashion shoot, styled by Marcus Allen, looking back meant looking forward. Antoni was “living my ’90s dream, or at least how my sisters dressed in the ’90s when I was a little kid,” the 40-year-old says. Vintage pieces mixed with American designers like Willy Chavarria and Ralph Lauren — with throwback accessories like a CD player and an N64 controller. The latter was particularly exciting for the reality star.
“I wasn’t allowed to have that growing up ’cause my parents thought that video games were too violent, so I only had a Game Boy with Tetris, but I was living out the childhood dream that I never really had,” he says.
Looking back is also a theme of Porowski’s new Nat Geo docuseries, No Taste Like Home — sometimes way, way back. But rather than clothes, food serves as the means to transport celebrity guests James Marsden, Awkwafina, Florence Pugh, Justin Theroux, Henry Golding, and Issa Rae back to the culinary roots of their ancestors. They actually visit where their forebears lived as well — a childhood dish of Marsden’s leads from a Texas ranch to a German castle and back to an American biergarten, for example — with Porowski serving as a guide through cuisine, genealogy, human migration, space, and time.
“I’ve always loved travel,” Porowski shares. “Queer Eye…afforded me the life beyond my wildest dreams, and I get to connect with other people and just tell human stories using food as a vehicle.”
With No Taste Like Home, which is executive produced by Gordon Ramsay, “I kind of wanted to do that in a bit more of a global way because…to quote my therapist, diversity exposure is probably one of the most important things that we can all benefit from,” Porowski says.
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He cites a Welsh term, hiraeth, which he learned through Nothing Left Unsaid, a documentary about the family history of Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt, Cooper’s mother. The word has no direct English translation, but Porowski defines it as “a longing or a nostalgia for a home that you’re either not familiar with or that never really was.” In some ways, No Taste Like Home unfolds like a mystery for its celebrity guests as they tap into hiraeth and learn “the idea of generational gifts, of why we are the way we are.”
“It almost feels unreal to think that I descend from a king,” Rae marvels about the shoulders she stands upon after discovering royal roots in Senegal.
Porowski has had a journey with his own background as well: “I never really thought about the idea of these generational gifts, of really figuring out like, why am I so passionate about certain things? Is it because there was an abundance of it in the past? Is it because we didn’t have it necessarily?”
The Montreal native points to his family history — he is descended from two Polish survivors of concentration camps who instilled in their families a rule to never waste food, which he finds informs his passion for cuisine today.
So what tastes like home to Porowski? A clear borscht paired with uszka, tiny Polish dumplings filled with wild mushrooms foraged with his family, he shares. “But because it’s me, I would add a dollop of full-fat sour cream. And chives, not dill. I know I’m Polish. I don’t like dill — except in pickles or if it’s cooked in a stew.”
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While guiding his No Place Like Home guests through their journeys, Porowski had some eye-opening experiences as well: sampling wild eggplant in the jungles of Borneo, feasting on “some of the most incredible fish I’ve ever had in my life” on the Senegalese coastline, being roused in the morning by “beautiful Islamic chants.” It’s all part of this “diversity exposure,” which he champions as an essential practice in a time of growing distrust of others’ differences. It’s a throughline from his work as part of the Fab Five on Queer Eye as well — though here, on a global scale.
“If you really get to know someone personally…I guarantee it’s gonna make you so much harder to pass any preconceived notions or judgments or have any negative feelings or any type of negative stereotypes that may come about,” he says. “And that’s why I think that the specificity of this kind of storytelling is so important.”
Porowski sees the power of this diversity exposure for LGBTQ+ people firsthand — often at airports, when generations of family members will approach him to share that they watch Queer Eye together. “It’s an opportunity, again, to learn about us as individuals,” he notes.
RALPH LAUREN Light Blue Button Up; WILLY CHAVARRIA Red and White Tacombi Pleated Basketball Shorts; RALPH LAUREN Navy and Green Silk Wide Diagonal-Stripe Crest Tie; CALVIN KLEIN Underwear; MARYAM NASSIR ZADEH Black Leather Oxford; ELI BURCH X THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE Yellow Logo Bracelet; TALENT’S OWN Gold Bracelet; ELI BURCH Burch Leather NecklaceMatt Monath
While Porowski has “too much ambition” to turn away from his professional goals at present, he admits to having more settled dreams as well. “I really wanna have a farm,” he shares. “I want a place that I can escape to on the weekends and just breathe and put my phone down and just like the simplicity — simplicity is a lot more attractive to me I think than ever before. And so hopefully someone to share it with. I don’t know how and/or [in] what way, but I definitely wanna have kids too.”
“I’m a relationship guy through and through,” attests Porowski. “I love meeting the family, the friends, getting to know each other, learning the conflict points, and how to meld, and not to, and all the nuances of it. I’m a fucking hopeless romantic.”
“I’ve learned that the best relationships that I’ve had have really been, and this might sound trite, but they really happened when I wasn’t looking for them. And so I’m trying to do just that.”
CONNOR MCKNIGHT Black Cashmere/Merino Wool Deep V-Neck Hunting Sweater; THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE Khaki Pants; Brown Leather Belt; Stainless Steel Necklace; ELI BURCH X THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE Yellow Logo Bracelet; TALENT’S OWN Gold Bracelet; SENA SHOES Black Leather LoaferMatt Monath
For now, the public figure is excited for the world to get to know more of “the real me” outside of being the food guru on the Netflix makeover show. “I think on Queer Eye, there’s some thirst traps, but there’s also the empathetic, emotional side of me, the really passionate one,” he says. “But to see me using different languages that I speak and going to different cultures, that’s such an important part of me…[that] I haven’t necessarily been able to express.”
“I’m excited for people to see me in my element, like when I travel and the joy that I have on my face when I get to experience new things — not just the food, but just [to] walk down foreign streets and speak to people that I’ve never met who are experts in their own domain,” he says. “I just think, for me, that’s what brings me the most joy.”
Nat Geo’s No Taste Like Home With Antoni Porowski is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
This article is part of the Out March/April issue, which hits newsstands April 1. Support queer media and subscribe— or download the issue through Apple News, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader starting March 20.
talent: antoni porowski @antoni
photographer: matt monath @mattmonath
lighting director: sequoyah wildwyn-dechter @sequoyah.images
photo assistant: matthew james ortiz @matthewjamesortiz
production assistant: alisha behnia @alishabehnia
stylist: marcus allen @theemarcusallen @thesocietyarchive with acb creative @acb.creative
stylist: assistant izaake zuckerman @izaakesouza @thesocietyarchive
groomer: amy komorowski @akgroomer with the wall group @thewallgroup
videographer: stuart sox @sox_andthecity
writer: daniel reynolds @dnlreynolds
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RALPH LAUREN Light Blue Button Up; WILLY CHAVARRIA Red and White Tacombi Pleated Basketball Shorts; RALPH LAUREN Navy and Green Silk Wide Diagonal-Stripe Crest Tie; CALVIN KLEIN Underwear; MARYAM NASSIR ZADEH Black Leather Oxford; ELI BURCH X THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE Yellow Logo Bracelet; TALENT’S OWN Gold Bracelet; ELI BURCH Burch Leather NecklaceMatt Monath
THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE White Button Up; FRAME DENIM Baggy Jean in Bonair; CALVIN KLEIN Underwear; ELI BURCH X THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE Yellow Logo Bracelet; TALENT’S OWN Gold Bracelet; ELI BURCH Burch Leather NecklaceMatt Monath
LORO PIANA Yellow Linen Jacket; THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE Navy Hoodie Sweatshirt, Brown Leather Belt, Stainless Steel Necklace; THE SALTING Cream Linen Pants; ELI BURCH X THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE Yellow Logo Bracelet; TALENT’S OWN Gold Bracelet; BIRKENSTOCK Taupe Boston Soft Footbed, Suede LeatherMatt Monath
RALPH LAUREN Light Blue Button Up; WILLY CHAVARRIA Red and White Tacombi Pleated Basketball Shorts; RALPH LAUREN Navy and Green Silk Wide Diagonal-Stripe Crest Tie; CALVIN KLEIN Underwear; MARYAM NASSIR ZADEH Black Leather Oxford; ELI BURCH X THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE Yellow Logo Bracelet; TALENT’S OWN Gold Bracelet; ELI BURCH Burch Leather NecklaceMatt Monath
CONNOR MCKNIGHT Black Cashmere/Merino Wool Deep V-Neck Hunting Sweater; THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE Khaki Pants; Brown Leather Belt; Stainless Steel Necklace; ELI BURCH X THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE Yellow Logo Bracelet; TALENT’S OWN Gold Bracelet; SENA SHOES Black Leather LoaferMatt Monath
TODD SNYDER Blue Pinstripe Linen Blazer and Pants; THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE Powder Blue Striped Gap Vintage Button Down; ELI BURCH X THE SOCIETY ARCHIVE Yellow Logo Bracelet; TALENT’S OWN Gold Bracelet; ELI BURCH Burch Leather NecklaceMatt Monath
