Style Counsel EMMA
And just like that... it was all over. My favourite TV gal pals were gone in a New York minute.
Actually they were around for 10 episodes but all good things must come to an end and last week, the Sex and the City reboot, did.
From the moment Sarah Jessica Parker confirmed And Just Like That was coming, I awaited the show with baited breath.
I felt nervous as I sat down to watch the first episode. And I was right to be. Meeting up with friends after so many years apart was never going to be easy and our reunion was not without a hiccup or two.
My friends had changed. Miranda had grey hair for a start.
One of them couldn’t make it. And they brought along a whole host of new people I didn’t know.
But we eventually found our groove and my life already feels lonelier without Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte in it any more.
I even find myself missing some of the newcomers like impossibly glamorous real estate queen Seema Patel.
I reckon we could have some fun over a cosmo or two. Although we might run the risk of turning up in the same leopard print outfit.
I am not going to get into whether the show was too woke, or debate Miranda’s dramatic character arc.
I’m not a TV critic. This is a style column... So I got to thinking about the fashion the show served up. Spoilers ahead. Read on at your own risk.
The show’s original wardrobe wizard Patricia Field, who created Carrie and co’s iconic looks for the SATC series, was off dressing Emily In Paris for Netflix, but costume designer Molly Rogers and her team stepped up to the sewing machine for AJLT.
I was hoping it would smash all the rules around age appropriate dressing and serve up fashion inspiration for me in my 40s, the way it did in my 20s, when SATC had me wearing prom dresses, corsages and horse shoe necklaces and buying my first pair of designer shoes.
While I haven’t yet copied any of Carrie’s And Just Like That looks, the powder blue Norma Kamali Diana dress from episode seven has been calling to me. FYI it’s £201 at Revolve.com.
I was definitely feeling all the florals we saw her in too and the floor-length white tutu had me googling tulle skirts, while the sight of Carrie still swishing around her sun-kissed waist-length curls at 55 was enough to have me tell my hairdresser to skip the trim at my last appointment.
In truth, my favourite fashion moments were the ones tinged with nostalgia. Carrie’s blue engagement Manolos getting soaked in the shower as she cradled Big in the opener, the Fendi baguette under her arm in episode nine.
I actually yelped out loud when the Atelier Versace millefeuille dress from An American Girl in Paris part une showed up.
Some fashion pundits have complained the team played it a little too safe with Carrie’s looks for some of the run.
But I think it is important to remember the show came off the back of the pandemic. I am not sure how well a run of couture frocks would have gone down in the current climate.
Or maybe the wardrobe department was simply saving the best till last.
The Valentino gown Carrie wore to scatter Big’s ashes from the Parisian bridge where the pair reunited in the original series finale was a work of art. It was impractical, ridiculous and over-the-top. Exactly what we have come to expect of Carrie.
There is no word yet as to whether there will be a second