Carrie Bradshaw—sex columnist, podcast host and purveyor of fine hats.
Well, at least that’s what her full title should be in And Just Like That…—the reboot that’s revived the iconic ’90s fashion icon of Sex And The City and given her the modern-day treatment.
And while hats were always a huge part of Carrie Bradshaw, AKA Sarah Jessica Parker’s former wardrobe on the show, the new season has turned that particular element up a notch.
So, when marie claire Australia had the opportunity to interview the show’s talented wardrobe designers, Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago, we had to ask the question: What is it with Carrie Bradshaw and hats?
Laughing, Rogers replies, “She just looks so good in hats! And in a combinations of hats—I have so many fitting photos of [Sarah Jessica Parker] in a hat and another hat on top of that and she looks incredible.”
Santiago adds with a smirk, “Carrie’s just really feeling hats, it’s something we were really into but it’s triggering for our director of photography, because every time you put a hat on somebody you’ve got to make sure that it’s not shadowing the light, so it takes longer to light [the shot] properly.”
With that in mind, Santiago says they were actually “really lucky” to get so many into the show.
“But we had a lot of fun, we found all these amazing hats that she looks so incredible in.”
There’s no arguing that. From bird fascinators to flower-topped wide brims—think of any type of hat and Carrie Bradshaw has probably worn it.
Indeed, Rogers and Santiago had plenty of fun putting the wardrobe together, perhaps at times a little too much fun—while the series was being filmed in New York City, Parker generated hefty buzz online when she was pictured in several rather, um, unique outfits.
“A lot of times people would see outfits on the street when [Sarah Jessica Parker] was coming back and forth on set and they would be like ‘Why is she in these scarves and rubber gloves? What has happened to these costume designers? Why is she dressed like that?’ That was funny to see people trying to figure that out,” Rogers laughs.
Of course, one of the best—and very satisfying—nostalgic elements to AJLT are the wardrobe items we’ve already seen in the original Sex And The City series. From shoes to even the most subtle accessories, these are the items that made Carrie Bradshaw’s fashion icon status, live on to this day.
A lot of that comes from an archive belonging to Parker herself, who has many pieces both Rogers and the show’s former stylist Patricia Field was already well familiar with when they worked on SATC together.
“It’s such an unusual and rare thing that there’s this show and [Parker] has this archive that you can just go into and say, ‘Oh let’s pull that original Miu Miu snakeskin out.’ I can’t think of any other show like that. It’s like lightning strikes twice,” Rogers explains.
In AJLT, we’ve witnessed the resurgence of Carrie’s Gucci belt bag, her studded belt (which was affectionately named ‘Roger’ because it was used so much) and, of course, those blue Manolo Blahniks—to name a few.
“We can pull them out after all these years and say, ‘Here’s Roger and the Fendi bag and the Manolo’s. It’s a very specific thing to have after all these years,” Santiago adds.
Parker’s input cannot be overstated either. The actor is so synonymous with her on-screen counterpart that she herself often thinks of things before the designers do.
“I’ve got a story for this,” Rogers tells us excitedly.
“[Parker] came to the fitting room in episode 4 [of AJLT] and was like, ‘Im really feeling cluster earrings.’ And she had kind of come up with this really great idea, because earrings can be boring—you can get sick of wearing your studs, or your pearls and wearing them on television in every scene.”
“Danny and I were like, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?! That’s a great idea! It’ll look so pretty with your hair and its something different’,” she continues, adding: “So Danny and I were on the hunt for every cluster earring we could find.”
Found them, they did. Santiago tells us the earrings we’ll see Carrie don in the series are Schiaparelli designs from the 1950s.
18 years have passed since the final episode of Sex And The City aired, and almost 12 years since the last movie was released—there’s no denying the world has changed significantly within that time.
And of course, Carrie and her friends Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) have also changed in their own ways—but one thing always stayed the same.
“Their style that was created for them originally, we just sort of brought it up to date,” Santiago explains.
“They still are those women, they still have that root to them of what made them stylish then and they’re still the same people now. With Carrie you’re still going to be able to pick her out from the crowd, you always will.”
Yes, we certainly will—hats, belts, Manolo Blahniks and all.
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