Alexander Skarsgård took a fashion risk on Sunday at the Cannes International Film Festival. The star has been in town for the premiere of “Pillion,” in which he plays the leader of a biker gang.

For the film’s screening, Skarsgård wore a T-shirt with a pair of leather pants and leather biker boots. The film was celebrated by a standing ovation, during which Skarsgård hugged a man in a gimp mask and kissed Pedro Pascal.

But later in the evening for the premiere of “The Phoenician Scheme,” Skarsgård upped the glamor of fetish fashion by opting for a Saint Laurent tuxedo featuring a pair of thigh-high boots. The boots hailed from the brand’s fall men’s 2025 show. The style features a rounded toe and buckle details at the top.

Skarsgård wore the boots with a double breasted jacket featuring sharp, padded shoulders and peak satin lapels from the same Saint Laurent collection. He also wore a necktie in place of a bow tie. The look was styled by Harry Lambert.

Saint Laurent’s fall 2025 collection was inspired by the idea of: if Yves Saint Laurent met Robert Mapplethorpe, who was featured in a 1983 YSL men’s campaign.

“There is a slightly dangerous side to Mapplethorpe that we can also find in Yves Saint Laurent,” designer Anthony Vaccarello said at the show.

The look from earlier in the day included a vintage T-shirt from Jerks in London. That shirt featured a drawing of a leather boot about to step on a man’s face. Skarsgard also wore black leather trousers from Loewe as well as the company’s Campo leather motorcycle boot.

In October, Loewe released a pre-spring 2025 campaign shot by Juergen Teller that featured many stars, including three men wearing leather.

Collectively, his two looks are a male version of “method dressing.” The styling strategy has been around for decades, but has increased in popularity following Margot Robbie’s press tour for “Barbie” — though others like Zendaya had been doing it previously.