The secrets behind the crazy costumes on And Just Like That…

“The fitting room on that show has always been a fun, creative, safe place where the outside world doesn’t really intervene with what we’re trying to do,” Rogers says. “That freedom is rare in this world because of all the judgments.”

And Just Like That… debuted on Binge (and HBO Max, now known as Max, in the US) as a “new chapter” in the Sex and the City extended universe. But before a single episode aired, social media users were dissecting the costumes. The Instagram account @justlikethatcloset, with more than 120,000 followers, identifies the pieces on the show, often months before episodes air, using paparazzi images and screenshots. Similar accounts, such as @findingcarriescloset and, most famously, Chelsea Fairless and Lauren Garroni’s @everyoutfitonsatc, do the same for the original TV series.

Rogers knows fans are watching – even before the show airs.

“I get mad when we have to go outside and do a New York exterior,” Rogers says, “because I like to keep everything underground, so when you’re anticipating an episode, you don’t feel like you’ve seen it all”.

“The second someone walks out of the trailer,” Santiago says, “there’s four or five paparazzi taking pictures, and within 20 minutes, it’s already posted online”.

They don’t plan for the outfits to be shocking. “It just seems to happen naturally,” Rogers says.

Of course, this was always the show’s remit. Field, Rogers says, “always said that this show can be a moving fashion magazine”. Her mix of runway and vintage clothing helped start trends such as visible bra straps and Manolo Blahnik shoes, plus handbags, such as Fendi’s Baguette and Dior’s Saddle Bag, that continue to be bestsellers.

“I think, overall, the look of [Sex and the City] was very trendy, very escapist, very exuberant,” says Fairless, whose Every Outfit empire with Garroni includes a popular podcast of the same name. “I love that Patricia Field convinced Middle America that the women in New York are wearing shocking lime and fuchsia out on the streets.”

Spurred by paparazzi culture and nostalgia-fuelled terminally online millennials and zoomers, the clothes seem to have entered a new era of newsworthiness.

They have always been plot points – most famously, Carrie realises she has no savings to remain in her apartment when it converts from rental to co-op, after having spent more than $30,000 on shoes – but they are just as often conversation starters when they appear on-screen with little or no commentary.

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On the official podcast for And Just Like That…, hosted by executive producer Michael Patrick King, he and the writers gloat about their fashion wins, such as the appearance of Loewe’s viral balloon shoes when Carrie goes on a Bergdorf shopping spree and Lisa Todd Wexley’s custom Valentino gown and feathered headpiece. Even as fashion brands embrace television, the appearances of such recognisably insider pieces is unusual.

For many SATC fans (and longtime sceptics), that focus on fashion is what makes the show objectionably materialist, and what inspired many fans to object to the two feature films, released in 2008 and 2010.

But the inventive frivolity of earlier seasons of SATC is what remains the show’s fashion legacy.

“There’s this golden era, in Season 3 and 4, where it’s the perfect combination,” Garroni says. “They’re starting to get access to clothing that’s on the runway, but they’re not so overloaded with fashion options, [and] there’s still an element of realism in the sense that Carrie will re-wear a Fendi Baguette a couple of times over a season.”

When the show got bigger and Field started to incorporate pieces such as an alleged $80,000 (USD) Versace couture gown, it seemed to prioritise showstopping clothes at the expense of realism. The balance between luxury and bargain-bin style that made the earlier seasons so winning disappeared.

It may be that the show’s true legacy is less about igniting trends than persuading viewers to embrace genuine fashion weirdness. The looks that seem to grab attention more recently are not the obvious ones, such as fantastical couture gowns and head-to-toe runway ensembles, but the ones that seem almost like a fashion dare, such as a gala get-up that Garroni and Fairless deemed “sexy equestrian rubber fetishist” or a Balenciaga-Gucci mash-up purse that Carrie used in AJLT’s first season. Fans also eagerly anticipate the return of previous looks, such as Carrie’s repurposed Vivienne Westwood wedding gown, which originally appeared in the first film. Garroni calls such reappearances “our Easter eggs”.

And for younger viewers, the style that Field pioneered and that Rogers continues to champion is almost like a Gen Z fashion bible: label-savvy, impractical and somehow always a bit DIY. On TikTok, Carrie remains an icon, with users re-creating pieces such as her green bustled miniskirt with white button-up and her newspaper print Dior dress. Several videos have posited one of Carrie’s most bizarre ensembles as the summer uniform of 2023: a sheer peasant top with track shorts and heels. Another viral trend has women in absurd outfits walking across the street with balletic kookiness, as Carrie does in the original series’ opening credits.

Still, when costume designers are eager to represent reality in scripted television, with the clothes of Succession and The White Lotus earning wide praise for their almost documentarian approach, And Just Like That… may seem to represent fashion fantasy run amok.

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What makes the costumes so rich is their method-like design process. Parker, Rogers and Santiago often spend more than eight hours in costume fittings. Parker has an almost monastic devotion to the persona of her character: At one point, Rogers recalled, she reached for a winter bathrobe that was pulled for an interior scene and decided she wanted Carrie to wear it on the street.

“Carrie is a character, but Carrie is a New Yorker,” Rogers says. “We always try to reflect on that person: Who is that New York girl, and how does she become believable?” For this season, that meant incorporating more books for subway reading and sweatshirts and tote bags with the names of New York newspapers and artists.

This obsessive wardrobing methodology is similar to the approach Jeremy Strong took in playing Kendall Roy on Succession – incorporating his own understanding of Loro Piana into the character’s look, working with costume designer Michelle Matland.

It’s a practice Strong borrowed from his idol Daniel Day-Lewis, who, for example, partnered closely with the costume designer Mark Bridges for Phantom Thread, dressing himself by going into his character’s actual closet and emerging in whatever felt right for the scene.

In fact, some of the second season’s strangest style choices are Parker’s own, such as a peculiar way of tucking her necklace off to the side, into her bra strap. “That’s her little quirk,” Santiago says. “She does that in real life.” A tote bag covered in pink tape with the names of Democratic candidates running for election was another viral moment while the show was filming, but was in fact Parker’s creation.

Perhaps what makes the show indelible is that the clothes have a way of looking somehow timeless, even if they aren’t “classic” in the usual sense of the term. What looked outrageous in 2002 looks just as outrageous today, even if there are more fans eagerly replicating the looks. Pigeons, after all, never go out of style.

Washington Post

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