Alexander Skarsgård Stuns in Gold Suit and See-Through Shoes at ‘Wicker’ Screening

There are red carpet risks, and then there is whatever Alexander Skarsgård just did in London.

The 50-year-old actor walked into the 2026 BFI London Film Festival on Thursday night (October 8) for a special screening of his new film Wicker — and promptly made every other premiere look on the calendar feel boring by comparison. Skarsgård wore a head-to-toe metallic gold Saint Laurent suit with no shirt underneath. That alone would have been enough. But he didn’t stop there. On his feet: the viral YSL spring/summer 2027 transparent shoes. Fully clear. No socks. Just ten bare toes, on display, at one of the year’s biggest film festivals.

Honestly? It worked.

Photos from BFI Southbank show Skarsgård posing alongside co-stars Olivia Colman, Peter Dinklage, and Elizabeth Debicki, plus co-directors and co-writers Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer. Everyone else went safe — all black, classic, elegant. And then there’s Alexander, gleaming like a trophy in the middle of them. Colman, to her credit, looked like she was having the time of her life about the whole thing.

This is Skarsgård operating exactly in his lane: the guy who treats a press tour like a dare.

The Shoes Everyone Can’t Stop Talking About

Let’s talk about the shoes, because they deserve their own moment — and because the internet has been arguing about them since June.

The lucite elongated-toe derby shoes debuted on the Saint Laurent spring/summer 2027 menswear runway earlier this summer, and the reaction was instant and chaotic. Comments ranged from people fretting about sweat and condensation building up inside the plastic to one person declaring they were “calling the police.” The shoes were described, not unfairly, as basically transparent incubators for feet. Not exactly practical. Definitely not subtle.

And yet, the moment Skarsgård stepped onto the carpet, the conversation flipped. The same shoes that had the internet up in arms in June suddenly looked like a statement. “Because it’s him, I’ll allow it,” one fan wrote. Another called him “the epitome of the Hollywood golden boy,” which, fair enough — he was literally wearing gold from the neck down.

Not everyone was converted. “Men’s feet should be illegal,” one commenter offered. “No socks is crazy,” said another, and honestly, you can see their point — going sockless in clear plastic shoes in front of a hundred photographers takes a level of confidence that most of us will never access. One more summed it up: “Just looking at those shoes is making my feet sweaty.”

But that’s the thing about Skarsgård. He doesn’t dress to be agreed with. He dresses to be remembered. And a gold suit with transparent shoes at a film festival screening? You will remember it. You are remembering it right now.

What Is Wicker, Exactly?

Strip away the fashion chaos and there’s a genuinely intriguing movie underneath. Wicker is described as an “audacious comedic fable about sex, marriage, and the absurdities of social convention,” which is already one of the better loglines in recent memory. Olivia Colman plays an ostracized fisherwoman who commissions the local basketmaker — played by Peter Dinklage — to weave her a husband. Enter Skarsgård as the Wicker Husband, who turns out to be far more spectacular than anyone bargained for. His arrival sets off “a wave of jealousy, fascination, and upheaval that threatens the very fabric of village life.”

It sounds completely unhinged. It sounds like exactly the kind of thing this cast would do beautifully.

Colman herself has said the film was “one of the best and most original scripts I’d read in a long time,” which carries weight coming from an Oscar winner who can afford to be choosy. And she had plenty to say about her leading man, too. “Alex is funny, intelligent, and beautiful anyway — in the wicker costume, he’s breathtaking,” she said. “Everything is exaggerated; he’s a work of art. Alex fills the Wicker Husband with a beautiful soul.”

That’s high praise from one of the most respected actors working today. Also, “beautiful soul” wrapped in a wicker prosthetic is a phrase I didn’t expect to type today, but here we are.

The Wicker Nipples Quote of the Year

Skarsgård, for his part, seems fully aware of how absurd his job description got on this one. Asked about filming in prosthetics made of actual wicker — courtesy of the artists at Weta in New Zealand — he leaned all the way in.

“Most male actors dream of playing Hamlet at some point in their career. I never did,” he joked. “My dream was always to have nipples made out of wicker. Thanks to our wonderful directors, Eleanor and Alex, and the brilliant artists at Weta in New Zealand, my dream has finally come true.”

Wicker nipples. As a career aspiration. This man has won an Emmy and played a Viking warrior and he is out here telling the press his dream was always woven chest prosthetics. You have to respect the commitment to the bit — or maybe it’s not a bit at all. With Skarsgård, it’s getting harder to tell, and that’s part of the fun.

The quote also tells you something about the tone of the film. This isn’t prestige drama trying to win awards by being miserable. It’s a fable — strange, funny, a little unhinged — and the cast clearly had a blast making it. That energy tends to translate on screen, or at least it does when the people involved are this good at what they do.

A Press Tour Built for Chaos

Here’s the thing about Skarsgård: this is not new behavior. This is a pattern.

The Swedish actor — son of Stellan Skarsgård, brother to a small army of acting siblings — has been quietly building a reputation as one of the most interesting dressers on any red carpet. For Pillion, the film in which he played a leather daddy, his press looks ran the gamut from leather pants to short shorts to delicate sequined tops. He wore them all with the same unbothered expression, like a man who had simply decided that rules were for other people.

Before that, there was The Northman, where he transformed into a hulking Viking warrior. There was Succession, where his turn as the unsettling tech mogul Lukas Matsson became one of the show’s defining performances. And there was Big Little Lies, the role that won him the Emmy and proved he could be terrifying in a way that stuck with you long after the credits rolled.

The throughline? He commits. Fully. Whether it’s a Viking revenge epic, a domestic abuser, a tech billionaire, or a man literally woven out of wicker, Skarsgård goes all in — and apparently that extends to the wardrobe. The gold suit isn’t a costume. It’s the same instinct, applied to a red carpet.

When Can You See It?

If the premiere look has you curious about the actual movie — and honestly, how could it not — the wait isn’t long. Wicker arrives in select theaters on October 23, with a wider release following on October 30. Just in time for Halloween season, which feels right for a movie about a basket-woven husband causing village-wide chaos.

The BFI London Film Festival screening puts the film in front of one of the most discerning audiences in the world, and early buzz suggests it’s as strange and delightful as the premise promises. A comedic fable about sex and marriage starring Olivia Colman, Peter Dinklage, Elizabeth Debicki, and a shirtless gold-suited Alexander Skarsgård is not the kind of thing that comes along every day. Thank goodness for that, and also: more of it, please.

As for the shoes — whether the transparent YSL derbies become a genuine trend or remain a beautiful, sweaty one-off worn by exactly one brave Swede — we’ll have to wait and see. But Skarsgård has done what he always does: taken something ridiculous and made it iconic. The feet, the gold, the wicker nipples — it’s all part of the same package.

Hollywood has plenty of actors who play it safe on the red carpet. Alexander Skarsgård is not one of them. And on a Thursday night in London, in a gold suit and shoes made of plastic, he reminded everyone exactly why that’s a good thing.

Source: Just Jared