Influencing the Fashion of a Generation "Just Like That"
When “Sex and the City” premiered in 1998, it took the world by storm. Over the course of its six season run, the show welcomed viewers into the exciting lives of sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw and her friends Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda as they navigated their careers and romances in New York City. Though the show did provoke social norms by celebrating female friendship and sex positivity, it left one of its biggest impacts on the fashion world. Ballerina skirts, suits and color blocking are just some of the looks the show brought to trend. Now with the show’s reboot, “And Just Like That…,” premiering on Dec. 9 on HBO Max, fans anticipate new show-stopping looks.
“Sex and the City” introduced Gen X women to high-end designer brands. Fashion fanatic Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) never shied away from name-dropping the designers of her fabulous clothes. The show’s costume designer, Patricia Field pioneered the relationship between television costume designers and high-end design houses by requesting their one of a kind samples and accessories for the show. Field promised these exchanges would give brands free publicity, and SATC brought lesser known high fashion designers such as Manolo Blahnik to the forefront of fashion.
Another compelling aspect of the dramedy’s fashion was its seamless blend of high-end and thrifted pieces. The girls were known for their polished, elevated looks, but they didn’t wear miniskirts and stilettos all the time. Carrie wore a dirndl, a peasant style dress that originated in the Alps, at a picnic in Central Park. When she explored everyone’s dream walk-in closet, she wore a green ‘50s dress with a matching coat and accessorized with a Timmy Woods Eiffel Tower bag and Dior shoes. Field constantly engineered creative ways to rework and incorporate vintage pieces into the girls’ outfits. Oftentimes, these accent pieces formed the foundation for Field to build the rest of an outfit around, such as the turquoise bird hair clip that Carrie wore with her Vivienne Westwood wedding gown.
Though “And Just Like That…” just premiered Dec. 9, the show’s fashion has already begun to make an impact. Since the show began filming, fans have taken to social media to anticipate the characters’ outfits. Instagram accounts like @justlikethatcloset and @everyoutfitonsatc, which have 106k and 725k followers respectively, have been documenting all of the garments in the reboot that they have been able to locate from behind-the-scenes photos. These fan accounts employ their followers to help identify the stars’ clothing and accessories. Some brands even contact the accounts themselves to help gain publicity.
These accounts allow fans to purchase “And Just Like That…’s” outfits before they sell out upon the show’s debut, and brands are already seeing the impact. The Lena Non-Stop Disco platform heel by Terry de Havilland sold out at the end of the summer after Parker was seen wearing it on set, despite its £275 price tag. Moreover, after Parker was seen carrying a Fendi baguette bag, Lyst reported that the search for the bags increased by 45%.
While “Sex and the City” definitely left its mark on the fashion of Gen X and older millenials, this was not necessarily the case for younger generations. Instead, many younger millennials and members of Gen Z look to shows like “Gossip Girl” and “Euphoria” for their style inspiration.
“Gossip Girl,” a show about rich teens living drama-filled lives on the Upper East Side, aired for six seasons on the CW after debuting in 2007. One of the show’s costume designers, Eric Damian, worked under Field’s supervision on SATC, and he brought his knowledge of Manhattan fashion to the set of “Gossip Girl.” The show and its fashion catered to a younger audience with a mix of downtown designers and high end labels, but it was still very much defined by its preppiness. “Gossip Girl” popularized collegiate looks like blazers, polo shirts and knee high socks, and who can forget Blair Waldorf’s iconic headbands? Similar to SATC, “Gossip Girl” boosted brand recognition by featuring high-end pieces such as those by Tory Burch and Marc by Marc Jacobs. Despite the show’s overwhelmingly preppy aesthetic, each character still maintained their own style, such as Serena with bohemian looks and Blair with posh pieces. Viewers could take style inspiration from whichever character they resonated with most.
In more recent years, “Euphoria” has also made a name for itself in the fashion world. The show, with its first season premiering in 2019 and the second season set to air in 2022, promotes fashion as a means of self expression. Each character has a distinct personal style that speaks to their evolving identity, whether that be combating mental health issues or coming into their body and sexuality. For example, the costuming of Rue, the show’s narrator and a recovering drug addict who is struggling to find her place in the world, is usually androgynous and inspired by streetwear. Meanwhile Kat is a shy, body-conscious teen who becomes a confident dominatrix after a sexual video of her is leaked. Her outfit choices reflect this boost in confidence as they are a lot sexier with more leather and sheer pieces.
Costume designer Heidi Bivens focuses on dressing the characters in clothing that Gen Z actually wears instead of attempting to create a style from scratch. All of the pieces are incredibly trend-driven and hyper-stylized, but they are based in reality. Biven acknowledges the wealth of information accessible to Gen Z and utilizes the way our fashion is inspired by our access to the past, such as when the characters were inspired by old TV shows and movies for their Halloween costumes (Kat dressed as Thana from Ms.45 and Cassie was Alabama Worley from True Romance), and the present, like through social media.
The media we consume through social media, movies or TV shows has an immense impact on our fashion choices. It introduces us to new styles and designers. It shows us what we like and what we don’t. “Sex and the City” was one of the first major TV shows to play with fashion and create new trends. With the upcoming release of the show’s reboot, I can’t wait to see the influence it will have on fashion today.