In a New York Minute: The Lasting Legacy of Sex & the City
Is Sex and the City still shaping your style?
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When Sex and the City came out on the sixth of June 1998, I was literally four years old. The lazy Italian habit of dubbing everything brought the show closer to home only in 2001.
But my first encounter with the show that would influence fashion for an indefinite period of time was much later—in my teenage years, when most of the scenes were still quite shocking for a shy, virgin town girl like me.
So I gave up, and only rewatched the show in its entirety this year. And I might be a bit late to the party, but well, let me tell you that the love I have for this show is immense and a bit delusional. Like any wannabe fashion or culture writer with a strong passion for fashion and a fascination for a very romanticised New York, I just love it.
Maybe we all want to be like Carrie, a columnist at The New Yorker, who buys Manolos like she’s buying peanuts. Or maybe not?
Either way, I believe that Sex and the City is still today an iconic part of TV history—light, fun, unpretentious (or maybe only a bit), with nods at feminism and testimony to that eternal fight between chic and kitsch.
Maybe it’s the over-the-top fashion, the womanhood topics explored, or maybe just the sex—STC is, even today, incredibly relevant. It’s an idealised but clever journey into the lives of four very different women who embrace opposite styles, ideas, and lives while still managing to be friends (that’s the beauty of fiction).
Sex and the City shocked audiences in 1998 by openly portraying and discussing sex, dating, and female empowerment—topics rarely handled with that rawness back then.
The series, based on the novel by Candace Bushnell, explores the lives of four friends: Samantha, the uninhibited free spirit and incredibly sexual femme fatale; Carrie, the inquisitive, smart, slightly toxic columnist; Charlotte, the rosy-eyed conservative idealist; and Miranda, the independent, deadpan lawyer.
New York was, of course, the real fifth character of the series, and the poetry and cynicism of Manhattan were essential to making the series what it became. All the locations were chosen very carefully, often inspired by the real-life events of crew members.
During my research for this article, I discovered that Sarah Jessica Parker was the only actress with a contract clause about nudity. I also found out that the iconic tutu Carrie wears in the intro was found in a discount bin for $5.
Did you also know that Mr. Big was modelled after Candace Bushnell's then-boyfriend, Ron Galotti, who was also a Vogue publisher? And what about the name of the series? Rumours say that it wasn’t assured to be Sex and the City until the very last minute because, at the time, they feared the word "sex" in the title would have affected the series’ success.
Like it or not, I believe that Sex & the City is one of the series that influenced how we think and dress as women. Charismatic and funny, I’ve always found it fascinating on so many levels. So much so that I convinced everyone around me to binge-watch it again and again, trying to find a bit of myself in each of the main characters. But what I love most about it is its fashion. A way of expressing style so different from mine, but that I can’t help but wonder admire.
I got so deep into my research that I bought all the books and read all the articles I could find on the internet. One of my favourites will forever be this one about Patricia Field, the wonderful and eccentric stylist of Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada, written by the lovely
. I highly recommend checking it out.
So. of course, the trivia I loved the most is all about the costumes, so let’s cut to the important bits…
THE FASHION
The fashion here was not just clothes but pure storytelling. And I cannot stress enough how much I believe that the way we dress can communicate so much about ourselves to others. It’s an incredible tool to showcase our personality without even opening our mouths. And that’s exactly what Patricia did here.
Patricia, the iconic STC iconic costume designer, made several iconic and unforgettable choices that not only shaped the characters' styles but influenced an entire decade (if not more) of fashion. One of her most famous decisions was mixing high fashion with vintage and unexpected finds. Take the $5 tutu, the blue cape Carrie wears in the opening of season four (a thrift find from Miami), or those abnormally huge flower pins that recently made a fashion comeback. Her choices freed the sexiness of that kitsch element that society kept attributing to bold fashion choices. A good example is Carrie's "naked dress" from season one, which became a symbol of Patricia’s boldness.
Field also made mismatched accessories a thing, something I’ll keep forever in my fashion baggage. Mixing designer pieces with flea market finds created a unique aesthetic that reflected the characters' personalities and inspired me to do the same with mine.
In fact, one of Patricia’s talents was dressing each character with their personality in mind. Charlotte’s wardrobe was classic and polished, sometimes conservative to the point of being boring, reflecting her traditional views on life and her lack of flexibility (I love her anyway), while Samantha’s style was unapologetically bold and sexy. I’ll never forget her dressing gowns or all the bold jewellery. The show’s impact on the fashion world is, in my opinion, unlimited. Every couple of years, some of the items the characters wore become popular again—take the Fendi baguettes or the flower pins.
Oh, and don’t worry if Carrie’s wardrobe seems a bit mismatched with her writer’s income. Patricia didn’t care about that either. In fact, she said that Carrie loves thrifting, and she puts all her effort into mixing and matching, maybe borrowing a piece here and there thanks to her connections. She also wanted to make a point—Miranda, for example, as a lawyer had more money than Carrie but less sense of style, demonstrating that style isn’t always about the money. We love you Pat.
Fan or not, I believe that Sex & The City is a testament to a very crucial era, leaving a lasting mark on 2000s fashion.
Here are some of my favorite fashion moments the series gifted us with.
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