Alexander Skarsgard gives menswear a leg-up

Alexander Skarsgard’s Cannes fashion diary is a masterclass in the evolution of men’s style.

Alexander Skarsgard mixes and matches at the Cannes Film Festival. Picture: Getty Images

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For all the fuss about the updated dress code rules at the Cannes Film Festival (no “nudity” or “voluminous trains”, s’il vous plait), it was Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard who caused the most chatter with his red-carpet looks.

In a multi-day appearance that, on the internet at least, earned him the status of both style icon and “daddy” – Skarsgard kicked off proceedings in a pair of Loewe leather trousers, followed by the delightfully risque over-the-knee boots from Saint Laurent’s spring ’25 runway. Said boots have already been worn by another of the internet’s favourite boyfriends, The Last of Us’s Pedro Pascal.

Pedro Pascal is another celebrity to be playful with fashion. Picture: Getty Images

Skarsgard then wore an incongruous yet compelling combination of a pinstripe Magliano blazer, pink satin bow tie and a pair of blue sequin trousers from influential London menswear designer Bianca Saunders. For a later television appearance he wore a positively tiny pair of shorts (especially on a man 1.94m tall) from another British menswear brand shaping how men dress, SS Daley, along with white socks and loafers.

The total effect – experimentation with cut, silhouette and fabrics – resonates with a cultural shift in how men dress now.

You could see this too in the looks from male attendees, including co-chair Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton in custom Wales Bonner, at this month’s Met Gala. This year fashion’s biggest night celebrated black dandyism to coincide with the exhibition’s theme, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.

Meanwhile at Australian Fashion Week this month, an evolution in how men dress could be seen both on and off the runways. The best-dressed attendees played with texture, such as applique detail and fringing on coats, volume in oversized leather jackets and flair, such as neckerchiefs, in their looks.

On the runways, a certain swing toward personal style, and pizzazz, could be seen in such things as the pearl-encrusted T-shirts at Albus Lumen and woven polo shirts and printed silky shirt-and-tie combinations at Wynn Hamlyn.

A Wynn Hamlyn look at Australian Fashion Week.

For Wynn Crawshaw, creative director and founder at Wynn Hamlyn, reintroducing menswear to his brand was licence to play with classic silhouettes with “unexpected fabrications and playful detailing”.

“There’s a strong sense of nostalgia in what we do, but always with a forward-looking energy to each piece – designs that invite a bit of experimentation and individuality. I think today’s men are ready for that,” he says. “They’re open to fashion as a form of self-expression and embracing the chance to experiment beyond traditional menswear. Our goal is to create pieces that feel unexpected and playful while balancing the practicality and wearability of the product.”

Art director, photographer and author Giuseppe Santamaria has snapped the style of those attending fashion weeks in Sydney for 15 years. He says he’s never had quite so many men to photograph.

“The amount of subjects I would find in an hour today is probably the same amount of men I photographed in my first year in 2010,” he says of this year’s Australian Fashion Week attendees he snapped for GQ Australia.

“I think men have become more comfortable expressing themselves in a number of ways, and fashion is one of them. Australian men in particular have come a long way.”

This is in part, he says, because the way men think about fashion has evolved.

“Men have become more interested in the fashion world and treat clothes like they do their other hobbies, ie, cars and sports. They get really invested, and want to learn and know everything about a certain subject,” he says. “With some conversations you would overhear during the shows, you would think they were talking about a sports car, when in fact they were talking about vintage boots they found.”

Christian Kimber says men are more willing to experiment with their day-to-day looks.

A patchwork shearling coat from Christian Kimber's new collection.

A sense of elevation, and willingness to experiment is something designer and tailor Christian Kimber is seeing among his clients too. Kimber would know. He spends most of his time on the floor of the Melbourne-based brand’s Flinders Lane flagship and Armadale stores, listening to what men want.

“I’m always with customers most days … I’ve always been inspired by the customers. It’s always been the inspiration for the collections. It’s been his lifestyle. The feedback I’m getting from guys is they are interested in the more beautiful things that we do,” Kimber says. This includes the lush suede and leather jackets and made-to-measure suiting in beautiful – and sometimes unexpected – fabrics the brand has become known for.

Kimber thinks confidence to experiment a little – be it in cut, colour or fabric – in part comes with men getting a handle on their wardrobe foundations.

“It’s more (about) trusting our aesthetic and trusting that what you get from us is going to suit the other things they have and the other colours they wear,” he says.

The brand this month released a campaign for its newest collection that was a masterclass in how stylish men want to dress now, with sharply cut outerwear, including a patchwork suede jacket, layered with just-so knits and trousers cut to have a little louche looseness to them. It fits too with a relaxing of dress codes; when you don’t need to wear a suit to the office every day, well, what do you wear?

Following a post-pandemic-inspired move toward dressing up again, Kimber’s wife and business co-founder, Renuka Kimber, says there’s now been a pronounced shift in how men get dressed for their day-to-day.

“I feel like this is a really natural evolution for our brand … now we’re at the point where we are seeing men who have made space for that creativity in how they dress in an occasion-wear context now realising and having the confidence to do it in their everyday. And so you see a collection that actually brings that flair and that confidence and that personality and the boldness really into what an everyday wardrobe looks like, and some really statement pieces and how you work that into a collection or a wardrobe that involves a simple knit polo or a beautifully cut chino,” Renuka Kimber says.

Changed dress codes – in the office and beyond – are just one driver for this, she says. So too are conversations around modern concepts of masculinity and social media democratising style from the runways and celebrity. Skarsgard’s blue sequin trousers and pink bow tie combination may be at the more extreme example, but a certain willingness to “pick and mix” a look is something the brand is seeing more of. Men are, she says, “putting together outfits … being prepared to buy statement pieces for their everyday wardrobe … and putting together a cohesive wardrobe rather than just a look”.

Also, as Skarsgard can attest, they’re having more fun.