Alexander Skarsgård turned his feet into the talking point of the BFI London Film Festival when he arrived at a screening of his new film Wicker in transparent oxford shoes. The Swedish actor walked the carpet at BFI Southbank on 8 October, pairing the see-through footwear with a gold metallic suit.
The shoes are black, with vinyl laces, and leave the whole foot on show. Both pieces of the outfit drew attention, but the shoes did most of the work. They belong to Saint Laurent’s spring 2027 collection, which made its runway debut at men’s Paris Fashion Week in June. The 70th edition of the London festival gave the style one of its first outings on a red carpet, and Skarsgård shared the screening with his Wicker co-star Olivia Colman, who joined him for photographs.
Corrado De Biase, the freelance design director of shoes at Saint Laurent, told Women’s Wear Daily that the design is called “O. Fan”, a reference to the adult platform OnlyFans. He said the shoes were meant to celebrate sexuality in the gay community and linked the idea to Yves Saint Laurent’s own ties to young people from that community. Creative director Anthony Vaccarello framed the shoe as a question of fairness, telling the trade title: “Why torture women with plastic shoes, but not men?”
Reaction online moved between disgust and admiration. The social media user Kyle Pullman joked about the actor’s feet on the night of the screening, while one Instagram commenter complained that Skarsgård “is showing too much foot”. Others called the look chic, and a number of people made jokes about shrinkflation. The response recalled the split over Margaret Qualley, who wore Chanel’s soleless “shoeless shoes”, black heels fastened with two sets of laces, to the world premiere of The Dog Stars in August.
Skarsgård has a record of taking risks with his clothes. He went without trousers at the MTV Movie Awards and again at a fundraiser connected to Antarctica, and the shoes continue that habit at a busy moment in his career. He has recently moved back to Stockholm, has been reflecting on his childhood years in Texas, and stars in the series Murderbot. Wicker, a romantic fantasy, is the film he is now promoting on the festival circuit, and the London screening put both the actor and his wardrobe at the centre of attention.
