BEHIND the SEAMS

Patricia Field reflects on her top five fashion moments

The image of Sex and the City’s heroine, sashaying thr ough Manhattan in a tutu, is indelible. Field found the skirt in a sale bin and paired it with a singlet. But producer Darren Star needed convincing. “I told Darren that if the show was a hit, we’d need something completely original – not of that season or a certain time,” Field has said. “In the end, the tutu won.”

In the two-part finale of Sex and the City season six, Carrie languishes in her suite, $US80,000 of grey Versace tulle pooled around her. “The dress really amped up the emotion of that scene,” says Field. Her inspiration? “They’re old fashioned, but there are these dolls with long gowns that cover the toilet rolls.” During filming, she noticed Parker was sitting on the edge of the bed instead of in the middle of it, engulfed by the gown. “I reset it,” she says. “Thank god!”

“You’re in desperate need of Chanel,” is Andy’s fashion diagnosis in the makeover scene from The Devil Wears Prada. So that’s what Field gave her: one spectacular pair of Chanel boots. “I just thought that she was so plain, and she takes this job she basically doesn’t believe in. She’s not ‘fashion’. Then all of a sudden she appears in this over the top Chanel,” explains Field. “I have heard that a lot of people really like that scene.”

In creating Miranda Priestly, Field pulled archival Donna Karan dresses, a Valentino gown, and an army of coats from a Russian furrier. “Another designer who normally works with Meryl came in with a huge budget, but [the film company] didn’t have that money,” says Field, who was asked to work with a much smaller budget. “Thank god I have friends in the right fashion places,” she jokes.

“When you see Lily Collins, she’s the spitting image of Audrey Hepburn,” muses Field. It inspired her to send the Emily in Paris star to the ballet in a black gown and glittering circlet, just like Hepburn wore in Funny Face.