The 2025 Cannes Film Festival produced no shortage of Fashion Moments™, from Rihanna’s bump-baring Alaïa dress to Amal Clooney’s Galliano-era Dior number. But, thanks to a last-minute dress code update that mandated no nudity (as well as no volume and no trains), the carpet was devoid of, well, sex. Enter Alexander Skarsgård.
The Swedish actor had been anything but subtle in his Croisette looks. Skarsgård is paying homage to his film Pillion, in which he plays a biker who enters into a BDSM relationship with a shy young man (Harry Melling). For the photocall, Skarsgård more than nodded to the film’s plot, wearing a white crewneck tee depicting a leather boot-clad foot hovering above a man’s face, from South London store Jerks. Styled by Harry Lambert, he paired the archival BDSM shirt with a pair of leather Loewe pants and black biker boots—not dissimilar to the pair pictured on his tee.
But that wasn’t the end of Skarsgård’s kinky boots. No, no, no—the actor outdid himself on the Croisette at the premiere of The Phoenecian Scheme, dressed in a double-breasted Saint Laurent suit, which he styled with a pair of thigh-high leather boots. Needless to say, his subversive footwear choice quickly garnered commentary online. One X user referenced a Joyce Carol Oates post: “cannot a man or a boy ‘mother’?”
Even outside of his leather-heavy bondage looks, Skarsgård knows how to spark conversation on the carpet. At the premiere of Eagles of the Republic, he paired a gray Magliano pinstripe blazer and a pale pink bowtie with blue sequin Bianca Saunders trousers.
The actor is no stranger to bringing kink to the red carpet. While promoting the film Infinity Pool, he donned a black leather leash—even inviting co-star Mia Goth to walk him. And all the way back in 2016, he pioneered the pantless trend at the MTV Movie Awards, forgoing his trousers for a pair of white briefs. But at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Alexander Skarsgård brought his penchant for all things freaky to new heights.
And he’s not finished yet. Earlier this week on British daytime television show Lorraine, Skarsgård appeared to promote his latest film Murderbot, bringing with him a full look from the S.S. Daly fall 2025 runway: Some cheeky check short-shorts, a cropped beige trench coat, wine-colored tie, and white shirt, accessorized with penny loafers and calf-length white socks.
“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.” Indeed, the British designer’s collection subversively plays with classic British archetypes in cheerful, sensual, and sometimes erotic ways. Skarsgård even did a jaunty curtsy to show off the look.
