And Just Like That, Sex and the City is back: what will Carrie Bradshaw and the crew be wearing in the HBO Max sequel?

Aug 3 , 2021

From left, Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristin Davis as Miranda, Carrie and Charlotte: three of the lead characters from Sex and the City return in 2021’s sequel series on HBO Max, And Just Like That, continuing to flaunt a designer wardrobe. Photo: HBO GO

Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon and Kim Cattrall lead SATC, but Manolo Blahnik heels and Fendi Baguette bags defined the show too

Patricia Field, who’s currently working on Emily in Paris, passed the costume design baton to Molly Rogers; they also did wardrobe for The Devil Wears Prada

Groundbreaking in its frank, often explicit depiction of the love lives of a group of 30-something Manhattanites, Sex and the City changed the way a generation of women approached sex, relationships and urban existence. But matters of the heart and metropolitan New York weren’t the show’s only focal points. Fashion played such a central role that the series could easily have been titled Sex, Style and the City.

Second only to the quartet of actresses Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon and Kim Cattrall, clothes, bags and shoes were the co-stars of SATC. And just as the hit series affected how women lived and loved, it exerted an equally potent influence on their dress sense.

Sarah Jessica Parker in a scene from Sex and the City 2. Photo: AP Photo/Warner Bros

The styling of the series, which ran from 1998 to 2004, was the work of New York costume designer Patricia Field. A prominent figure in the city’s subculture from the 1970s until 2016, Field operated a quirky boutique under her own name, which was frequented by the likes of Patti Smith and Debbie Harry during the heyday of punk and New Wave.

A still from the movie Sex and the City. Photo: Handout

In 1995, Field worked on a movie with Sarah Jessica Parker and the two instantly clicked. When Parker was cast to star as SATC’s narrator and protagonist, Carrie Bradshaw, she suggested Field be brought on board to help shape the series’ look. Field has said her goal was not to turn the series into a televised fashion show, but to express the core quartet’s personalities and mindsets via their attire.

A scene from Sex and the City. Credit: HBO

“We were telling the stories and showcasing the characters through the way they dress. It’s a storytelling situation,” Field told Fashionista in 2018. Typically that meant prim preppy apparel for WASP princess Charlotte (Davis), pantsuits and similarly sober gear for high-powered lawyer Miranda (Nixon) and bright, bold garb for sultry PR doyen Samantha (Cattrall).

Carrie’s wardrobe, meanwhile, allowed for the most imagination and would prove endlessly influential. Thanks to Carrie’s championing on SATC, Manolo Blahnik heels, the Fendi Baguette and an eclectic mash-up of cheap n’ chic vintage finds coupled with high-priced designer apparel – Field’s signature – became style staples of the early 21st century.