The pigeon clutch
Carrie (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) holding the £650 pigeon clutch bag in series 2. Photograph: HBO
The resin replica of a pigeon made by Irish designer JW Anderson, yours for £650, is a visual gag that speaks to fashion’s love of a meme. It’s also a not-so-humblebrag, in that you must be able to afford a car – or not be on your way to an actual job – if you only need enough space for a packet of Polos. It is all the privileges that the show has symbolised over the years, rolled up into one neat accessory that sits cooing beneath Carrie’s arm. Ellie Violet Bramley
The Birkin mugging
Seema (played by Sarita Choudhury) carrying the Hermès Birkin bag in series 2. Photograph: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Only in this show would a bag warrant its own subplot. In episode 3 of series 2, Seema is mugged for her Hermès Birkin bag on the Upper East Side – only to find it days later, stuffed under a bush, empty of cigarettes and cash. Parking the irony that a modern mugger would steal the fags but leave the $30,000 Birkin, it was a prescient moment, airing just a few weeks before the bag’s namesake, Jane Birkin, died – and further proof that Birkins are still the go-to It Bag for conspicuous consumers. It also neatly mirrored Carrie’s Fendi Baguette mugging in SATC series 3 and, based on Samantha’s series 4 run-in with Lucy Liu’s Birkin bag, confirms Seema’s role as proxy for the missing cast member. Morwenna Ferrier
The quiet luxury ensemble
‘Hyper-lowkey style …’ Bridget Moynahan as Natasha in series 1. Photograph: Steve Sands/NewYorkNewswire/Bauer-Griffin/Shutterstock
Of course Natasha, Big’s ex-wife, would be the one to speak to the current obsession with quiet luxury. There is nothing much to say about her outfit – it is understated and painfully “tasteful” – and that is the point. This kind of hyper-lowkey style embodies fashion’s affair with stealth wealth. Where once logos might have signalled that an unremarkable cardigan cost more than most people’s rent, now the proof is in the details – the stitching, the seams, the exact fabric and the breezy confidence with which it is worn. Although Natasha would never have gone in for an insignia – from the first time they met in the Hamptons, she was always the clean white tank to Carrie’s cowgirl fancy dress. EVB
The balloon shoes
‘Was she parsing her grief through the medium of footwear?’ Loewe footwear on the catwalk and on Carrie’s feet in series 2. Composite: Peter White/Getty Images; HBO
It is always exciting to see something bonkers from a catwalk worn out in the (fictional) wild. In this series, Loewe comes up trumps twice – and counting. Take Carrie’s post-grief, Bergdorf Goodman shoe shopping spree, after which she found herself sat on her bed, riddled with fake Covid, trying on a pair of white heels which came with small, semi-deflated red balloons trapped under the strap. In this context, were they a comment on inflation? Was Carrie reminding us that she knows her Loewe from her Lemaire? Or was she parsing her grief through the medium of footwear? Well, it wouldn’t be the first time she tried to shop her feelings. MFSloganwear‘In this case, the sloganwear has a pointed message …’ Sara Ramirez as Che Diaz in series 2. Photograph: James Devaney/GC Images
The character of Che Diaz is one of a few newcomers to the Sex and the City world, and has had a lot of heavy lifting to do in terms of representation. Their slogan jumper offers some assistance. For a long time, sloganwear was glib, optimistic, earnest and often twee. Now, it is often hyperspecific and, in this case, pointed – a much-needed, if surface-level, jab at the cisgender and largely heterosexual orthodoxy on which the show was built. EVB
The newspaper merch
‘No one else can channel their cultural capital quite so clumsily through their clothes as Carrie …’ Carrie wearing a New York Times jumper in series 1. Photograph: HBO
If SATC was unclear on how a part-time writer could afford a brownstone apartment in New York, AJLT is even less clear on whether Carrie is now a working journalist at all. Even so, she likes to remind the viewer that she was, or is, a New Yorker who reads the New York press, through the medium of newspaper merch. One sweater is from the New York Daily News, another the New York Times (see also the Monopoly sweatshirt and a vintage “I Love Central Park” sweater by Jerzees in series 1). Because no one else can channel their cultural capital quite so clumsily through their clothes as Carrie and still get away with it. MFMiranda’s hairMiranda (played by Cynthia Nixon) with grey hair in series 1. Photograph: HBO/Warner Bros/2021 WarnerMedia Direct, LLC. All Rights Reserved. HBO Max™ is used under license
AJLT is obviously a fictional TV show, but its struggle to portray the ageing process is real. Miranda’s grey hair is a case in point. In series one, hair is compared and contrasted: Carrie’s dyed hair is fine because it is obviously fake; Charlotte’s is not because it’s aiming for natural brown, ergo Charlotte is passing as someone younger. That Miranda then decides to dye it back to its original copper and nothing more is said is just another ball-dropping moment in a show that used to handle this stuff well. For what it’s worth, the silver hair likely requires just as much upkeep. MF
The duvet coat
‘It speaks to fashion’s excess …’ Carrie wearing the impractical Moncler coat in series 2. Photograph: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO
Is it a puffer jacket? Is it a sleeping bag? Is it a tent? Whatever it is, it is not practical – the Moncler coat by Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli harks back to the countless XXXL silhouettes Bradshaw has worn over the years. Such a utilitarian garment being given such a fabulous and highfalutin twist gives a peep into what the 0.0001% might be planning on wearing as climate chaos increasingly shrouds cities like New York in extreme weather. It speaks to fashion’s excess, even in the eye of the storm. EVB
The symbolic shirt
‘Symbolic of her attempt to adapt to a world that’s changing.’ Miranda wearing Osei-Duro in series 1. Photograph: HBO/Warner Bros/2021 WarnerMedia Direct, LLC. All Rights Reserved. HBO Max™ is used under license
One of the reasons AJLT rose from the ashes of SATC was to address the overwhelmingly white history of the show by casting some prominent BAME characters. The first series is laden with clunking – albeit knowing – gestures towards inclusion, Black hair gaffes and Miranda’s reluctance to intervene with a mugging for fear of being a “white saviour”. It doesn’t help that, at one point, Charlotte talks about having “diverse friendships”. Thankfully, series two tones it down a bit, but there is a nod to Miranda’s attempts to adapt to a changing world, in a shirt by Ghana-based label Osei-Duro. MF
The belted Belstaff
Aidan (played by John Corbett) wearing the Belstaff jacket in series 2. Photograph: Gotham/GC Images
Aidan, of wooden furniture fame, reappears in the second series of AJLT wearing a waxed, belted and buttoned Belstaff jacket. Where once he was all about scuffed suede and moth-eaten vintage T-shirts, this incarnation of his character just sold his company to West Elm and is all grown up in an expensive coat. It slots neatly into a more general smartening of style – often read as a reaction against the slouchy pandemic years – that has seen tailoring return and loungewear slope off back behind the sofa. But, let’s be clear – it is obviously not the jacket, which is winning no prizes, that makes Carrie question whether Big was a big mistake after all. EVB
The new tutu
Harking back to the original – Carrie wearing a tutu skirt in series 1. Photograph: James Devaney/GC Images
Carrie’s most well-known outfit was the tutu from the opening credits of SATC, so reissuing that same look, at a longer length, in episode 4 is obviously a bridge between the two shows. It’s worth adding that Parker used to be a ballerina, and the real story behind the original $5 bargain bin tutu is that Patricia Field wanted to acknowledge that fact, while also showing Carrie as a materialist with princess syndrome. Never change, Carrie. MF
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