Over the last few months, Alexander Skarsgård has been having a lot of fun incorporating flirty, fetish details into his wardrobe with stylist Harry Lambert. He brought some much-needed sex appeal to the Cannes Film Festival red carpet in kinky boots and a naughty, boot-licking graphic vintage t-shirt; on British daytime television show Lorraine, he wore cheeky short-shorts and socks from S.S. Daly, doing a little twirl and a curtsey. “I wanted to be sexy today,” he told host Ranvir Singh. “And I thought there’s nothing sexier than a middle age man in a British school boy uniform.”
Now Skarsgård is back in his BDSM-referencing bag. Appearing at the Zurich Film Festival premiere of his forthcoming movie Pillion, the actor wore a white silk shirt with a gray graphic of dildos and butt plugs from Magliano, a Milanese label inspired by Italy’s 19th century queer subcultures. He wore the shirt with tailored pinstripe suit trousers and black loafers.
Lambert—who has worked styling Harry Styles, Jacob Elordi, Emma Corrin, and Josh O’Connor—is known for sharply tailored looks with subversive and unexpected details.
A24’s steamy arthouse psychodrama Pillion follows the story of Ray (Skarsgård), the charismatic head of a motorcycle gang, who initiates the meek Colin (Harry Melling) into a submissive relationship. What’s to be expected? Prince Albert piercings (on a prosthetic!), naked wrestling, and stratospheric sexual tension and release.
Speaking to Variety on the red carpet, the actor shared: “My experience of watching this on screen was through [Al Pacino-starring] Cruising, where it’s this dark underbelly of New York City and it’s dangerous, murderous and scary. Leather gays are scary. I’m no Ray, but I have a little bit of experience from that world and I know that’s not the truthful depiction.”
“I found that in this case, it’s not really relevant what my background is,” Skarsgård said. “I mean, I do have a kid, but what I’ve done in the past, who I’ve been with, men, women…To me, what was important was that this felt like an opportunity to tell a story about a subculture I hadn’t seen portrayed this way—with so much authenticity.”
Skarsgård has long been a red carpet renegade, showing flashes of that playful freak that lives within. Who could forget in 2016 at the MTV Movie Awards, when a tuxedo-topped and pantsless A.S. was walked on a dog leash by Mia Goth.
It seems like the perfect project for the silly, sorta freaky Alexander Skarsgård. And with Pillion’s release date set for February, he and Lambert look set to have even more fetish-leaning fun with his press tour wardrobe.
