A truly brilliant piece of clothing says a lot with very little—an understated but impeccable bit of tailoring, an IYKYK accessory. But the graphic tee? A sartorial soul-barer. A loud and proud declaration of one’s personality. And Alexander Skarsgård keeps finding ways to play up the print t-shirt, with his wicked sense of humor and kinky, witty dressing.
The Swedish actor, currently making the Pillion press tour his playpen with the help of his stylist Harry Lambert, appeared on British late-night talkshow The Graham Norton Show, sporting a new tee. The tight shirt reads: “HOT BUFFET: ‘Available All Day.’ Eat as much as you like,” which he paired with black leather pants and a cheesy grin.
The shirt is by British conceptual artist Joe Sweeney, who works across sculpture, print, video, and installation. Other tops on his webstore include “NO LOITERING,” “CAREER GIRL,” and “BURGER SAUCE: £0.20” tees, a “Reserved” polo, and a top featuring a drawing of a poppers bottle.
Across the Pillion press tour, Skarsgård and Lambert have reveled in the power and perversion of an, at first, unassuming tee, one that makes you do a double-take. At Cannes Film Festival, they kicked things off with Skarsgård wearing a white crewneck tee depicting a man lying horizontal, licking a leather boot-clad foot hovering above his face. Lambert sourced it from South London store Jerks: Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, and Zoe Kravitz are also fans of the vintage tee haven. The next day at Cannes, Lambert put Skarsgård in a sun-faded ‘Let’s Party’ shirt, also sourced from Jerks, from the 1980s.
Burrowing deeper into his BDSM-referencing bag, Skarsgård stepped out at the Zurich Film Festival wearing 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.
Last month, Skarsgård also visited the Valladolid International Film Festival, for which he had plucked a tee from his own archive to wear. He wore a gray shirt that reads “WHEN MEN WERE MEN,” from dive bar of the ages Chicago’s Old Town Ale House, which the late Roger Ebert called “The best bar in the world that I know about.” The bohemian saloon has hosted famous patrons, from Bill Murray to Stephen Colbert, John Belushi, Anthony Bourdain, and Skarsgård himself, since 1958.
When he’s not in a cheeky vintage tee, Skarsgård has been keeping up the leather daddy luxe look, wearing a white, backless halterneck shirt and leather pants via Ludovic de Saint Sernin, and cheeky short-shorts and schoolboy socks from S.S. Daley.
Pillion, now out in the world, sees him play a dom motorcycle leader. But rest assured, this is far from the end of Alexander Skarsgård’s subversive and sexy fashion era—and that t-shirt collection is just growing.
