While much of the discussion around the Cannes film festival red carpet has been centered on celebrities and their entitlement to long trains and naked dresses, Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård bravely poses a different question: What if in 2005’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” Brad Pitt wore sky-high leather boots instead of Angelina Jolie?
On Sunday, Skarsgård, who was attending a premiere of Wes Anderson’s latest film “The Phoenician Scheme,” arrived onto La Croisette in a jaw-dropping pair of thigh-high boots. Styled by Harry Lambert, the square-toe creations were straight off Saint Laurent’s Fall-Winter 2025 runway and engulfed the actor’s entire leg, only finishing where one might imagine his boxer shorts to begin. It was half-dominatrix, half-fishing wader, and wholly surprising.
Tall leather boots have long been considered a sartorial shorthand for female sex appeal. Jolie, in her turn as the archetypal seductive assassin Jane Smith, famously wears a pair with fishnets, suspenders and a strapless PVC minidress under her satin-lined trench coat as she impersonates an escort to complete a mission.
Julia Roberts’s performance as the sex worker Vivian in “Pretty Woman” (1990) wore a pair, as did Jane Fonda in her racy rendition of “Barbarella” in the ‘60s. Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway, only reaches aesthetic apotheosis in “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006) after she slips on a pair of knee-high, hosiery-style leather boots. “Are you wearing…?” stutters Miranda Priestly’s vengeful and hierarchical first assistant, played by Emily Blunt, before being interrupted by Hathaway: “The Chanel boots? Yeah, I am” — a retort that has become one of the most satisfying moments of cinematic history.
The history of the boot, however, is far more unisex. Thigh-highs date as far back as the 15th century, where they were typically worn by men — as demonstrated by the medieval skeleton found embedded in London’s River Thames in 2018. A potential sailor, fisherman or mudlark, the height of the boots suggested the man was working in the water when he died. They became more fashionable than functional during the Restoration period in England, where they were worn by King Charles I and his calvarymen or Cavaliers. Often complete with a heel that signified status, the riding-style leather boots could be extended fully, reaching the upper thighs, or folded down into cuffs.
The boot wasn’t perceived as sexy, feminine footwear until the 1960s. In 1962, fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga unveiled a knee-high boot on the Fall-Winter runway. The next year, shoe designer Roger Vivier saw Balenciaga’s bet and raised him a few inches, designing a thigh-thigh silhouette for Yves Saint Laurent’s 1963 collection in alligator leather. “Ankle-deep, knee-high and even up to the thigh,” reported Vogue at the time. “This year’s best-looking legs will be marching up and down and back again in boots.”
The rise of the thigh-high was just one of the many sartorial changes that came with the post-war “Youthquake.” Hemlines were growing shorter and attitudes to sex were changing. In the brave new world of Mary Quant’s miniskirt, a tall boot acted as the perfect picture frame for the exciting, never-before-seen terrain of a bare leg.
In womenswear today, a flash of thigh is as ubiquitous as a crew neck T-shirt, but the male leg is far less familiar. Yet, the sentiment has already been embraced by actor Pedro Pascal, who donned the same Saint Laurent boots as Skarsgård in March, and labels Rick Owens, Martine Rose, Givenchy, Maison Margiela and GmbH have all designed their own pair. As we welcome daring gentleman dressers who are open to slipping on a pair of ballet flats and Mary Janes, the over-the-knee boot is nothing more than a logical next step.
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