Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
Like any great dom, Alexander Skarsgård knows exactly what his audience wants. For the past few months, he’s been promoting his new NSFW rom-com Pillion, which follows a BDSM relationship between a taciturn biker (Skarsgård) and a British wallflower (Harry Melling, a.k.a. Dudley Dursley from Harry Potter). The film is both a moving debut from director Harry Lighton and a glorious highbrow excuse to witness one of Hollywood’s hottest actors top. For Skarsgård, it’s also an opportunity to show that he’s unafraid to experiment both onscreen and off; during the press tour, he’s teased his sexual history “with men [and] women” and upended the male-movie-star fashion playbook with surprising fetish-inspired outfits.
Skarsgård is no stranger to daring red-carpet looks — in 2023, at the Sundance premiere of Brandon Cronenberg thriller Infinity Pool, he walked on all fours with a leather collar on and Mia Goth holding his leash. But his Pillion outfits demonstrate a whole new level of dedication to method dressing. Styled by Harry Lambert, Skarsgård has stepped out in risqué graphic tees, back-exposing blouses, and leather pants, sometimes looking like a Tom of Finland muscle hunk and other times a coquettish schoolgirl. If his Infinity Pool leash was screaming, these outfits are coy murmurs — and watching what Skarsgård will wear next has become its own naughty little game.
Photo: Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
At Cannes, festival organizers have banned nudity — but not fetish-inspired attire. For Pillion’s festival premiere in May, Skarsgård wore an archival white tee of a foot hovering above a face, sourced from the South London store Jerks, and leather trousers from Celine. What an excellent outfit for kissing Pedro Pascal after Pillon’s seven-minute standing ovation.
— Media Updates (@mediaforupdates) May 23, 2025
Skarsgård looked so babygirl for a May episode of the Lorraine show in a bomber jacket, tie, and plaid short-shorts that I immediately thought of the front cover of The Clique books. “I wanted to be sexy today,” he explained. “And I thought, There’s nothing sexier than a middle-aged man in a British school-boy uniform.” I’m going to have to agree.
Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images for ZFF
Skarsgård went a tinge more subtle in October at the Zurich Film Festival, where he wore this white silk blouse printed with what appears to be a pointillist still life of … dildos? It’s from Magliano, a Milanese label inspired by Italy’s queer subcultures.
A few days later, in a plaid lumberjack shirt, black leather jacket, and starchy denim from Celine at the New York Film Festival premiere of Pillion, Skarsgård resembled one of the buff sex gods drawn by Tom of Finland.
Photo: Dave Benett/WireImage
Later in October, at the London premiere for Pillion, Skarsgård showed up looking ready to give someone a lap dance, dressed in a backless halter-neck blouse and lace-up leather pants from the eponymous label of gay Parisian designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin, who’s known for racy, gender-nonconforming attire.
Photo: Photogenic/Claudia Alba/Europa Press via Getty Images
The “When Men Were Men” graphic tee that Skarsgård wore at the Valladolid International Film Festival is reportedly from his own closet, bought at Chicago’s Old Town Ale House. According to a post from a fan, he visited the bar in 2018 with longtime friend Jack McBrayer, of 30 Rock fame, and Michael Shannon.
At the festival, he offered more context for his recent style evolution: “I was spending time with the bikers from the gay community and the rest of the people from the film. I knew a couple of them were coming to the world premiere in Cannes. And I knew they wouldn’t show up in gray suits. And that excited me a little.”
On The Graham Norton Show earlier this month, he continued his streak of cheeky graphic tees with a Joe Sweeney shirt that read “Hot Buffet: ‘Available All Day” and black leather pants. (Sweeney, a British conceptual artist, also offers tees printed with “Career Girl,” “Clean Me” and a drawing of a poppers bottle.) I’m gobbling it up.
Photo: Aeon/GC Images
For a special screening of Pillion in New York and then dinner with his father, Skarsgård wore an electric blue sweatshirt that says “Dream Girl,” making me imagine an alternate universe where he, not Ross Lynch, is the lead in Troye Sivan’s “One of Your Girls” music video. The sweatshirt, per GQ, was made by Ladycotton, a France-based collective that hand-prints kink-inspired merch.
alex getting told off by his dad 🥲 pic.twitter.com/ZU2p4ni9Rs
— skarsgårdarms 🎈WTD SPOILERS (@hennethed) December 12, 2025
This one breaks the mold. Paired with his father in the Variety “Actors on Actors” interview, Skarsgård looks like a schmuck in a blazer, very wide silk tie, and giant sea-green shorts. Is it clownplay? Does he have a secret Marty Supreme cameo? Skarsgård is apparently not used to hiding so much of his thigh — when his father poked fun at the length of his shorts, he noted that they were “the longest shorts I’ve ever worn.”
Stay in touch.
Get the Cut newsletter delivered daily
Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice
Related