If John Waters, the famously dubbed Pope of Trash, does not strike every guest at Monday’s Council of Fashion Designers of America awards show as an entirely obvious choice of host, he has news for these doubters.

“I do follow fashion! I get all the magazines,” he said from Baltimore. “My favorite thing is to read Women’s Wear Daily the day after a national disaster.”

After just a split-second of merry pause, he explained: “Because they cover it from a fashion viewpoint. Which is what they should be doing.”

Mr. Waters comes to host duties after attending the awards in 2012, to accept on behalf of two absentee honorees, Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons (whose clothes he wears often and to whom he dedicated a full chapter of his book “Role Models”) and Johnny Depp (the star, early in his career, of Mr. Waters’s ’50s greaser sendup “Cry-Baby”). He follows in the footsteps of Andy Cohen, last year’s host, and Seth Meyers before him.