Courtesy of HBO GO
Carrie Bradshaw, Samantha Jones, Charlotte York and Miranda Hobbes – these four names of Sex and the City defined female empowerment in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s and have become icons of pop culture, influencing the way women view and celebrate friendships, careers, love, sexual liberation and most of all, fashion.
Now the series returns, after almost two decades, with a highly-anticipated reboot called And Just Like That..., which sees the women (sans Samantha) navigating the complicated reality of life in their 50’s. As hardcore fans of the original series, we can hardly wait to see how things pick up where they left off following the second Sex and the City feature film in 2010, including the evolution of their wardrobe. Taking over from the prolific Patricia Fields, the lead costume designer of the original series who revolutionised TV dressing, are co-costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago. We talk to them about what to expect in this new series.
Stream or download And Just Like That…, from December 9 or catch up on all six seasons of Sex And The City as well as the two Sex And The City movies now available on HBO GO.
Courtesy of HBO GO
The reboot celebrates a new stage of life. How did you keep each character’s personal style from the initial series while showing the inevitable changes in their fashion preferences?
Danny: “Sex and the City has always kind of been something that the girls had a very specific look for and that was created by Pat and Molly from that time. The girls have a very distinct style to them and I think it has very much has followed through with the new show.
With Sarah Jessica, she’s always been very creative, has a lot of whimsy to her character and the way that she puts her clothes together, and is very confident about her style and the things that she wears. She can be in an evening gown one day and the next in jeans or sweats and you know, with a gorgeous pair of heels, and that’s part of who she is.
So for us, keeping in mind of what girls’ styles were and just bringing them up to a more modern time is really what we focused on. That had a lot to do with the designers making it more modern. We worked with a lot of international designers from all over the world that we were able to find through Instagram or online. We had so much fun discovering all these new platforms that are now available to us that we didn’t know about. For us, that’s really been the change – to be able to have more access and bring more things to the table. When the original TV show was around, they just didn’t have that volume of such a widespread of things to bring in.”
Is there a specific story that you wanted to tell through the clothing?
Molly: “Coming out of the global pandemic, I wanted to tell you that life should be celebrated. Because life changes on a dime and is truly about the friends that you have. So I hope that the clothes, subliminally, show hope.”
