Alexander Skarsgard's Pillion Red Carpet Looks
leather, puppies, dildos, and kinky boots
Alexander Skarsgard has had his boot on my neck since True Blood, so his new role in Pillion as a Leather Daddy can only be described as a personal attack. The only thing more offensive is that the film is not yet available in the U.S. Until such a time as this is rectified (February 2026), I will be thirsting over his iconic red carpet looks.
If you’re not familiar with Pillion, I can’t help you much because I’m on a self-imposed blackout from all trailers, but Vogue recently described it this way:
A24’s steamy arthouse psychodrama Pillion tells 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.
Skarsgard has been playful on the red carpet for years, but he says he “went a bit crazy” with the looks for this press tour. And we love him for it. From elevating smaller designers to showcasing his very muscular back and arms he says he was “very happy in all those outfits.” And we are happy to look.
CANNES
The looks that started it all at Cannes. GQ describes the daytime look as “black leather pants and biker boots by Loewe, dark aviator shades from Linda Farrow, and an ’80s-era tee printed with an illustration of a supine man licking the sole of a leather boot.”
At night, he attended the premiere of Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme in what GQ breathlessly details as “a festishistic Saint Laurent look—a haughty double-breasted tuxedo jacket paired with thigh-high black leather boots— from designer Anthony Vacarello’s fall 2025 menswear collection, which imagined a fictional ’80s linkup between Yves Saint Laurent and the artist Robert Mapplethorpe.”
For me, it was the day look that let me know we were in business. The aviators, the boots, the shirt — clearly someone has been doing his Tom of Finland homework. My dream is that this leads to more leather in men’s fashion — worn respectfully, of course. It’s kind of the only way they can be slutty. Well, except for the next look…
BFI LONDON
Vogue called this look “Kinky In The Front, Kinkier In The Back.” According to Vogue, it’s “a full look from Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s fall 2025 collection; a white, backless halterneck shirt with a skinny leather tie, with tight, lace-up leather pants, and chunky round-toe Jimmy Choo boots.” He posed with Pillion co-star Paul Tallis (whose Twitter bio reads ‘Professionally LGBT+ Gay Biker & Gaymer’) and Maggie the Rottweiler. Oh, to be a puppy at Skarsgard’s feet…
You can’t see it in the above pictures but for me the star of this look is the rivet details along the fly of the leather pants. The backless top is one thing but the tension between look-at-the-crotch and don’t-look-at-the-crotch is for the true aficionado.
LORRAINE (BRITISH TALK SHOW)
In the midst of the Pillion tour, perhaps unrelated but who knows, he turned up on a British talk show showing some serious leg. “I wanted to be sexy today,” Skarsgard told host Ranvir Singh. “And I thought there’s nothing sexier than a middle age man in a British school boy uniform.”
While the members-only-style jacket gives me the heebie-jeebies, at least he understands something subs have known to be true for a long time: white socks are the peak of sex appeal.
ZURICH FILM FESTIVAL
Here he’s sporting “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” (Vogue). I’m really into this one. Weirdly the long sleeves and the more subtle hint of sex is more exciting for me than the halter top. Don’t give it all away! (But do, please do).
W MAGAZINE
A bonus shot from his recent appearance in W Magazine. This was his look to attend Cartier’s En Équilibre gala in Stockholm, but I don’t think it has completely lost the kinky through line. It’s giving modern-day Marquis De Sade. In this interview, he confesses that he doesn’t really know how to dress himself in his off time, giving all credit to stylist Harry Lambert for the tour. But he clearly has so much fun with fashion, for instance when he referenced the Cartier brooch he’s wearing here in the interview — “I’m pretty excited about this little snow leopard I’m wearing right now.”
Is this a call for more men to be slutty on the red carpet? Well, of course! Men With Real Faces — we’re looking to you to lead the charge.
IN OTHER NEWS…
I’m on the Sex Ed with DB podcast this week! Click here to get the episode on your player of choice. Or check out the snippet below where I answer the question “are trad wives subs?”
Oh hell yeah
is this a good new kinky movie to watch??