And Just Like That costume designers share the show’s inside style track
Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago spill on their favourite characters to dress, Aidan’s glow-up and what makes a Sex and the City moment.
And Just Like That … Carrie Bradshaw, played for some 25 years by Sarah Jessica Parker, is back (again) and “repurposing her pain”. But this time around, in the second season of the Sex and the City reboot, she repurposes the infamous Vivienne Westwood wedding dress she was jilted in to wear to the Met Gala.
The moment is a perfect summation of how the sequel is tapping into the original show’s fashion zeitgeist and dedicated fandom.
After all, Sex and the City was the show to make household names of designer brands such as Manolo Blahnik and Fendi, and make grown women consider wearing a tutu in the daytime.
The second season of And Just Like That … – a much discussed and enthusiastically criticised show – has just returned for its encore and, thankfully, at a zippier pace.
The show’s costume designers, Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago, say they enjoy the pressure of working on a show with such an ardent, long-time fandom.
“I think it’s really fun to be on something that has so much attention and has such loyal fans who feel like those women are a piece of them, wherever they experienced it. Whether in New York City or anywhere. I think it’s super cool,” Rogers says on a Zoom call with The Australian.
Both worked on the first series of the reboot. Rogers worked on the original Sex and the City series and movies alongside legendary costume designer Patricia Field.
And Just Like That … picks up with the three friends, Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York Goldenblatt and Miranda Hobbes (the fourth and arguably the most vital, Samantha Jones, is set to make a small cameo this season to the delight of fans) grappling with life in their 50s and the various curve balls this decade can turn up.
For Rogers and Santiago it was essential the women’s fashion sense – and especially Carrie Bradshaw’s, who remains in her 50s the ultimate kooky fashion plate and eternal “It girl” – was recognisable, but evolved to suit the changes in their lives.
“I think (the women) have their favourite designers, like all of us do,” Rogers says. “We have our go-to person that we always check online to see if they’re having a sale or something because we love their stuff.
“And I think they really do identify with a lot of their wardrobe and I think it reflects their moods and what they’re going through. It’s a big part of them.”
One way the pair keep the fans happy is with fashion “Easter eggs” – that is, Carrie and co re-wearing instantly recognisable items from the original series such as the blue Manolo Blahnik pumps Bradshaw wore when Big proposed and the Fendi bag (“it’s a baguette”) she was famously mugged for on a street corner.
Many of the pieces worn by Carrie Bradshaw have been meticulously kept by Parker, who had it so written into her contract. The unusual access to these archive pieces is something the pair value.
“(The archives) are such a treasure to have and I don’t think any other show has someone like Sarah Jessica, who saved all these amazing pieces that fans have such a love for. She allowed us to go into our archives and pull these pieces. We wanted to use them in very special places for the show. I think the fans loved that … it’s like an old friend, you know?” Santiago said in an interview with Vogue Australia last year.
The avid following of the show extends to several social media accounts dedicated to documenting and discussing its fashion, and countless digital articles written about paparazzi photos taken on-set during filming.
For Rogers and Santiago, who both refer to the characters in the show as “the girls”, the fervent interest is a blessing and a curse.
“We like to keep surprises for the fans and for the people that watch the show. We wish it could (be like) back in the day when Molly and Pat were doing the show, things didn’t come out like that. You didn’t have internet, you didn’t have Instagram and all this stuff where things were just instantaneously viewed. You had to wait until the show actually aired to see what the fashion was. And I think that made a lot more excitement for people to see this for the first time. It’s just the way the world is nowadays,” says Santiago.
The eagle eye detection work of armchair fashion obsessives also speaks to the growing influence TV has on fashion, culture – and sales now, from the “stealth wealth” obsession attributed to the billionaire Roy family in Succession to the cowboy hats and boots on Yellowstone. Stacy Jones, chief executive of Los Angeles-based branding and product placement agency Hollywood Branded, says Sex and the City was early in this space, and the fashion on the show has always been meaningful.
“Costume designers on TV series are setting fashion trends and driving brand sales, and should be considered the new influencers for fashion brands,” Jones says of the sway a hit show’s fashion can have more broadly.
“And Just Like That … showcases the power of product placement for brands, just as Sex and the City did. With the two series we are able to see the evolution of fashion as a woman ages, the ongoing brand relationships that stand the test of time, and how fashion impacts the world. Or at least, New York. The original series broke barriers by portraying women as confident, independent and unapologetic, and their fashion choices reflected that spirit – and still do.”
In any case, as Santiago notes, fashion is an effective way to understand a character too, and what they might be going through.
“I think you can look at someone’s outfit and pretty much be able to tell who that person is,” he says.
“They might try some new things like that. But basically there is a core to each one of these girls and how they like to dress.”
Santiago says Miranda Hobbes – no longer working as a corporate lawyer, a job that once defined her – is the character whose style has evolved the most.
“She’s got a lot of things going on in her life and she’s trying to discover herself and where she is and where she’s living and stuff like that … she was always very tailored, very suited then, she became a little bit more casual, sort of softening. I feel like there’s a progression as well, even with the new season of her … just trying to figure out her life,” he says.
Rogers and Santiago found particular inspiration, and perhaps less emotional baggage, in dressing some of the new characters. These include fan favourites such as Seema (played by Sarita Choudhury), Carrie’s realtor turned confidante, whom Santiago describes as the “panther” of the group with her slinky chocolate and leopard print ensembles, and Lisa Todd Wexley (played by Nicole Ari Parker), Charlotte’s frenemy and alpha school mum, whom Santiago says is someone “on the international best-dressed list”.
Todd Wexley was a particular knockout in the first episode of the second series with her custom Valentino gown for the Met Gala, complete with a dramatic train and mask (“It’s not crazy, it’s Valentino,” she tells her perplexed husband).
One fashion item to be spoiled before its big reveal was the JW Anderson “Pigeon” bag Sarah Jessica Parker was snapped carrying on the set of AJLT earlier this year, sparking a deluge of coverage.
The bag in question, cult yet kooky and an undeniable conversation starter, is pure Carrie Bradshaw. Like much of the original show’s fashion, it tapped directly into the zeitgeist.
The pigeon bag also exemplifies the overarching MO for both Rogers and Santiago, and for Parker, who is particularly involved in the costume decisions – that it should be fun.
“Stuff like that jumps out to Danny and I. Danny will hold something up in whoever’s attic we’re in, and we both see it for what it is, it’s a Sex and the City moment. And you know that you can find a spot, a scene, a walk and talk outside to put that piece that you’re in love with, and Sarah Jessica’s in love with. And she wants to carry it, or she wants to wear the hat that Danny has tried on – Danny tries on all her hats – and if we’re excited to bring it back, she’s excited, you know? She really didn’t hesitate, she saw that pigeon and she grabbed it and said, ‘this is too much fun’,” says Rogers.
Both are reluctant to give much away, but say the return of Carrie Bradshaw’s ex, Aidan Shaw, played by John Corbett, is a sign that people can evolve, including their style.
“I think if you look at him from where he was then and where he is now, a lot’s changed in his life as a character. He became successful with his business. He sold his business, he made a lot of money, he’s got a family now. I think he has a casualness to him, but I think he’s also a little bit more put together … but it is not fussy, not pretentious,” says Santiago.
“He’s not into labels, but he’s into looking good and looking comfortable. I think he’s found what works for him.”
As for the much celebrated return, however brief it may be, of Samantha Jones, played by Kim Cattrall – who will be dressed for her cameo by Patricia Field – Santiago says he would have moved her style along in the same way the pair did for the other women.
“(Samantha) already had a very distinctive style. She always distinguished her outfits from all the other girls, you know? And I think we would’ve flowed through in the same way that we do with all the other girls. How we’ve made the other girls look to this day. To modernise.”
Episodes of the second season of And Just Like That … drop every Thursday on Binge.
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