CARRIE COORDINATED

In Sex and the City, the TV show, each character had a distinct style. In the film version, they all blend into one

In Sex and the City, the TV show, each character had a distinct style. In the film version, they all blend into one

TEN years of watching Sex and the City on television has trained a generation of label- and love-addled romantics not to raise an eyebrow when Carrie Bradshaw dons a black Burberry coat and a trilby to go shopping at Duane Reade. Or when Carrie wears a four-figure Nina Ricci sweater trimmed with hundreds of feathers while typing on a laptop in the privacy of her own home. Or when Carrie crawls into Big8217;s big bed, wearing makeup and a single strand of pearls.

In the television series, broadcast from 1998 to 2004, fashion8212;the industry, the designers, the clothes8212;was a regular character, cleverly manipulated by stylist Patricia Field to refine the personalities of Carrie whimsical, eclectic, Miranda independent, biting, Samantha racy, sensational and Charlotte preppy, endearing.

Each character was bestowed with an individual style so distinct that women could identify with one of them. They could then buy a 39.99 T-shirt at the HBO gift shop to announce, 8220;I8217;m a Carrie!8221; for lovelorn philosophers or 8220;I8217;m a Samantha!8221; for narcissistic man-eaters.

But in the film, the characters are now four years older and, in a disappointing way, their styles appear to have changed into one: the offbeat, orgiastic, do-it-yourself madness of Carrie, the dominant female. It is not only that they now dress alike. In every scene, the women are practically coordinated by both colour and style, as if they had received a morning memo detailing the day8217;s dress code. Let8217;s all wear primary colours to a jewelry auction! Let8217;s all wear psychedelic hippie dresses on a trip to Mexico! Let8217;s all wear smart black-and-white ensembles and fur coats to a fashion show!

Sometimes the clothes even match the scenery, as when Miranda wears a droopy yellow turtleneck keyed to the blossoms in Central Park, or when Carrie, reading a copy of Cinderella, wears a sailor8217;s top with red stripes, which echo the dangling legs of a stuffed toy bug on a shelf behind her.

It8217;s easy to bash the TV show8217;s over-the-top materialism, but Sex and the City has never bothered to rationalise it, no matter how absurd or overpriced an item may be. Nor has the show explained how a freelance writer could afford all those clothes. It simply accepts that fashion is good and assumes the audience, just like Carrie, so badly wants to be a part of Vogue.

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The mention of a brand on the show had led to the success of several designers over the last decade, as Carrie Bradshaw represents the ultimate endorsement of a luxury system that is built on the aspiration to look rich or famous. Buying 1,000 handbags brings fulfillment. Buying knockoffs brings emotional impotence. Carrie can justify the extravagance of a wide leather belt with gold studs because she can get a lot of mileage out of it, wearing the belt with a pink sheath dress one day and over the Burberry coat the next.

Nevertheless, Sex and the City, the movie, tries to undermine that message when Carrie hauls out a churchy, label-less skirt suit and declares, at one point, that this is going to be her wedding dress. 8220;Simple and classic,8221; she says. 8220;When I saw it, I said, 8216;That is what I should marry Big in.8217; 8220;

The only label that never goes out of style, Carrie tells us, is love. Oh, but she looked just awful.
-ERIC WILSON NYT