Opinion / Has And Just Like That gone too far with the designer labels? Sex and the City offered major fashion inspiration in the 90s and noughties, but its films and spin-off are bloated with brands

Jun 14 , 2023

Sarah Jessica Parker rocking Carrie Bradshaw’s most iconic looks on Sex and the City and And Just Like That. Photos: Getty Images, @everyoutfitonsatc/Instagram, She Goes Wear

SATC just turned 25, celebrating the legacy of 4 leading ladies Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda played by Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon, respectively

While its spin-off series And Just Like That met with positive feedback, its excessive showcase of Dries Van Noten, Balenciaga and Chanel outfits bears little resemblance to real New York style

Sex and the City turned 25 this month! But unlike most of us – who likely grimace at the clothes we wore a quarter of a century ago – the show felt infinitely more stylish in its infancy than it does now.

Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw (left) and Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones, with Cosmopolitans, in Sex in the City. Photo: HBO

I’ve been rewatching it, and I’m reminded all over again why it became a de facto spiritual guru for multiple generations of women. Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda, for their flaws, showed us a new mode of living – one where baby showers and weddings were anything but aspirational, and where all you really needed to be happy was your friends.

Oh, and a great pair of shoes. Sex and the City taught the world how to pronounce Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin and, while doing so, it elevated high heels, big accessories and bold looks.

The Carrie Dress, made iconic by Sarah Jessica Parker. Photo: She Goes Wear

Who could forget some of Carrie’s iconic outfits? I’ve always loved the traffic-stopping LBD (OK technically, it’s dark grey) she wore in season two, episode 15, for an ill-fated date with writer Vaughn Wysel – and then for a far more successful post-break-up lunch with Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha – paired with gold aviators.

Sarah Jessica Parker playing Carrie Bradshaw, wearing a white dress in New York. Photo: @everyoutfitonsatc/Instagram

Even more turbulent in terms of her love life (but thankfully not her clothes) was the white, bias-cut slip she wears when she sees Big leaving his engagement party with a pair of simple heels.

Carrie Bradshaw, aka SJP, wearing a strappy floral dress. Photo: Getty Images

Then there was the strappy floral midi – from Richard Tyler’s Resort 2001 collection – that Carrie wears when she takes a surprise dip in Central Park’s boating pond with Big. Another one of my favourite outfits follows on from that impromptu swim when she buttons up an oversized white shirt of Big’s with heels and an Hermès belt.

Carrie Bradshaw’s iconic white-shirt-and-belt combo with heels. Photo: @everyoutfitonsatc/Instagram

The thread that connects all these looks is that – for all their stylishness – there is a simplicity to them. The rest of us, with a bit of time and effort (some of it probably spent in the gym) could source something similar. This made Carrie feel like what she was – a cleverly dressed, head-turning woman living in a big city – rather than what she became … which was closer to a fashion cartoon.