Get Carrie's look from Sex and the City

PLOT SPOILERS!

Celebrated and reviled in almost equal measure, there is no middle ground when it comes to the wardrobe decisions of Manhattan’s number one fashionista. The clothing equivalent of Marmite, you either ‘get’ Carrie’s look or you don’t. She refuses to play by any rules, happily mixing vintage and current, designer and thrift store, glamorous and humdrum – she is a fashion maverick that has redefined quirky for a new generation of catwalk queens.

During Sex and the City’s six season television run, Carrie started fashion trends, such as coloured bras showing underneath outfits and prom dresses, and despite some flamboyant mistakes (the ‘Heidi’ dress from season two’s “The F* Buddy” episode springs to mind), she pioneered a new way for women to dress. “She [Carrie] stood for the fashion end of the show,” says SATC’s costume designer, Patricia Field. “Her style was eclectic. It was rooted in the ballerina with Oscar de la Renta, the tutu.” So the challenge for the film came in presenting Carrie four years after we last saw her. What would Miss Bradshaw version 2008 look like?

“She became more sophisticated, but sexy,” states a confident Field. The famed New York ‘fashion maverick’ was happy to give the army of eager fans what they wanted – Carrie’s trademark extravagance – and early on in the film provided a snapshot of her with an over-sized flower corsage, almost as a gesture of familiarity. “One of my favourite outfits for Carrie is the dress you first see her in the opening. It’s a bone-coloured jersey, and it’s from the seventies, and it was long but I chopped it. And it has this big flower. For me it was like the opening title. It was like, “Here we are, open the door, we know you’re waiting, doors are open!” Because the audience was such a part of the show, they love the show so much that I just wanted to give them a big “welcome home” with a huge flower.”

However, as per every aspect of the movie, there would be no point in bringing back the character if she was simply going to repeat the past. Field was adamant that changes would be present, even if all that meant was a new spin on a past trend. “I thought: “I hope we don’t have to do the Manolos all over again”,” she admits. “I couldn’t have Carrie tripping along Fifth Avenue in the same spike-heeled sandals.” This didn’t mean that the Manolos were yesterday’s news, as evidenced by the electric blue ones that baptise Carrie’s new closet, but it did mean that other stylish shoes were introduced.

“Since the show went off the air, there have been a lot of other designers who have done some exciting things,” reasons Sarah Jessica Parker and so Dior’s Extreme Sandal became Carrie’s new favourite footwear. “Carrie loved the Dior shoe so much, she wouldn’t take them off,” reveals Field. “In the end, I had to rip them away from her, saying: “Carrie would not wear the same shoe day after day!”“

The fashion high-spot in the film is undoubtedly Carrie’s wedding themed photo-shoot with Vogue, where she gets to model sumptuous and elegant gowns from the likes of Vera Wang, Christian Lacroix, Christian Dior, Oscar de la Renta, Lanvin and most memorably Vivienne Westwood. The film was given the full Vogue creative team, including legendary Editor-at-Large André Leon Talley (the inspiration for Stanley Tucci’s Nigel in The Devil Wears Prada), and when Vivienne Westwood gives Carrie the gown to wear for her wedding, her Cinderella moment is complete.

Of course, where there are highs, there are also lows and in terms of the plot, Carrie suffers a setback as agonisingly brutal as it is unwanted. Cue a shift in her fashion choices.

Dubbed her ‘dark period’, Carrie’s unhappiness informs her wardrobe, as she retreats into herself – less bold, less colourful and less Carrie. “My head is in the witness protection program,” she jokes to new assistant Louise, who is shocked to find that Carrie’s darkness extends to her hair colour. Explaining the importance of taking Carrie out of her bubbly comfort zone into muted styles and gloomy colours, the film’s writer and director, Michael Patrick King, says: “The brown hair signifies a journey away from the girl Carrie was – a dark period. Patricia Field puts Sarah Jessica in dark clothes throughout this entire segment of the movie. Carrie is like a tree that has lost its foliage. She hibernates, goes underground.”

Fashion website Women’s Wear Daily went so far to call the change “perhaps the most metaphorical wardrobe in cinematic history”. Explaining that “for half of the film she comes off as a polished, über-fashionable grown-up; the other half, she’s the quirky, experimental fashion trailblazer/victim.”

Gradually, Carrie does begin to re-emerge and fittingly, not only does her hair return to its more familiar blonde, but it is in part due to New York Fashion Week. In re-connecting with the expressive, fun part of her personality, her confidence returns and so do the weird and wacky outfits.

A hefty chunk of these clothes are, as always, sourced from vintage stores, giving the film a timeless quality that never goes out of style. And best exemplifying her unpredictable and quirky, boho-look is her label-less wedding skirt ensemble – proof that she doesn’t need designer togs to be the ultimate Manhattan style queen.