Editor’s Note: Delving into the archives of popular culture historical past, “Remember When?” is a NCS Style sequence providing a nostalgic have a look at the celeb outfits that outlined their eras.
NCS
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In the first episode of season 2 of “Sex and the City” reboot “And Just Like That,” Carrie Bradshaw faces a sartorial emergency: Her custom-made robe for the so-called Met Ball (the theme of which was “Veiled Beauty”) falls by at the final minute when the designer, Smoke, fails to end it — leaving her with solely a cape.
“You must have something else fabulous to wear with my cape?” Smoke asks hopefully. “I can’t just go to my closet and find a perfect dress to wear to something called ‘Veiled Beauty,’” Bradshaw replies, earlier than catching her personal ideas. “Wait a minute — I might have something,” she says. “I’ve only worn it once. It’s not the best memory.”
Moments later, Bradshaw is in her closet, delicately unwrapping a ghost from the previous: The dramatic Vivienne Westwood wedding dress — and feathered teal bridal headpiece — she as soon as supposed to marry Mr. Big in, till he famously left her at the altar in the first “Sex and the City” film. (The tv sequence and sequel aired on HBO and Max, respectively, which share the identical dad or mum firm as NCS: Warner Bros. Discovery.)
In the last scene of “And Just Like That,” Bradshaw steps outdoors her brownstone house on New York’s Upper East Side, donning the voluminous robe with Smoke’s cape, which, serendipitously, is in the very same teal shade as her hen fascinator and slingback sneakers.
“And just like that, I repurposed my pain,” Carrie says, in her signature sign-off.
The symbolism of the repurposed garment is poignant for the 50-something tastemaker. Once entwined with heartbreak, the dress is now synonymous with glamour, resilience, and a night of celebration quite than loss. It indicators emotional development for a personality who, traditionally, has had a fraught relationship with nostalgia and closure.
“Bringing the dress back changes the sentiment of what it meant,” costume designer Molly Rogers (additionally of “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Second Act”) informed NCS in a cellphone interview. “It shows that she has healed and is ready to replace a painful memory with a wonderful one. It’s a very Carrie moment: Sentimental, but with a hopeful twist.”
For Rogers, the vogue second additionally offers the robe — first seen in the Vivienne Westwood Gold Label’s autumn/winter 2007 assortment and gifted to Bradshaw by the designer herself in the film, together with a handwritten word — the comeback it deserves.
“Sarah Jessica Parker (who plays Bradshaw) and ‘Sex and the City’ have long had a connection to Westwood, both the brand and the lady herself,” Rogers mentioned. “So when we read in the script of ‘And Just Like That’ that Carrie would end up in the wedding dress again, it felt like a great way to honor that legacy.”
Bradshaw’s selection faucets right into a broader fashion development amongst A-listers: The rising love affair with classic vogue on the purple carpet. Where as soon as the wealthy and well-known solely appeared in the newest couture designs, immediately’s stars are more and more embracing archival seems to be, and choosing clothes layered with historical past.
See Zendaya’s string of classic moments, together with the 1982 haute couture YSL dress she wore at the 2021 Black Women In Hollywood Awards, or the black taffeta spring/summer 1996 Givenchy robe at the 2024 Met Gala; Olivia Rodrigo’s archival Versace at this year’s Grammys; and Cynthia Erivo’s silver Alexander McQueen for Givenchy couture gown from fall-winter 1997 at the SAG Awards in February, the place the outfits are about storytelling as a lot as spectacle.
“When you look at archival gowns from the past you realize they’re almost like art pieces,” Rogers mentioned. “I think many celebrities are tapping into that sensibility, and understand that the opportunity to showcase (a piece of art) is sort of amazing. That’s the magic of the archive gown,” she continued.
Reviving “old” seems to be isn’t nearly carrying them unchanged. In “And Just Like That,” Brawshaw doesn’t merely mud off the Westwood robe; she updates it.
“For Danny and I, it was important to make the dress Met Ball-worthy,” Rogers mentioned. “But we also asked ourselves, ‘What happens to the gown she doesn’t wear?’ We didn’t want her to just disregard it completely. Carrie is the kind of person who staples something together and goes, so we didn’t want her experience with the designer that didn’t deliver the dress to be a total failure. That’s when the idea for the cape came in.”
“And Just Like That” co-costume designer Denny Santiago long-established the mantle, which is as sculptural as the dress itself, from a teal ball robe he found on The RealReal. The hen headpiece was restyled with a white mesh veil, whereas elbow-length teal opera gloves had been added for additional aptitude — a nod to the Met Ball’s theatricality.
On Bradshaw’s wrist, Rogers and Santiago clipped a small, spherical pin cushion — doubtless from Smoke’s stitching equipment — that regarded like a bracelet. “I thought that was a very Carrie thing to grab,” Rogers mentioned of the element. “She’s known for taking whatever is in front of her and making it into an accessory. She’s an experimenter, and we wanted that to come through in this look.”
The Vivienne Westwood outfit is much from the solely retro nod in “And Just Like That.” In reality, Rogers and Santiago have been weaving classic references into the reboot from the get-go, making archival items a major facet of the sequence’ fashion DNA.
Throughout the present’s two seasons (season three debuts on May 29), traditional items from the authentic “Sex and the City” sequence, like the iconic Fendi Baguette bag, the Dior newspaper-print dress and the sea-green Versace gown that Carrie wears in the present’s two-part finale, have all made a reappearance. So produce other much less immediately recognizable items, comparable to a Chanel blouse Carrie first wore in episode 15 of SATC’s third season, the Miu Miu python pumps she donned in the premiere episode of its sixth and last season, and the Streets Ahead studded ‘Roger’ belt that appeared in the first SATC film.
“Since I worked with Pat (Field, SATC’s costume designer) on the original show, I know what pieces people want to see again,” Rogers mentioned. But the archival references dropped into “And Just Like That” aren’t simply nostalgic easter eggs for longtime followers; they’re important storytelling instruments that chart Bradshaw’s evolution, each in her life and private fashion.
“Style isn’t static,” Rogers mentioned. “As you grow older, you see a different use for things, or you cherish them in new ways. You reframe them. That’s especially true for Carrie, who’s a risk-taker.”
The Met Ball robe is the epitome of that angle. “Clothes can be a way of revisiting the past to reinvent yourself,” Rogers mentioned. “The beauty of fashion and costume design is taking something tried-and-true out of the closet and doing something different with it.” After all, she famous, “why would you wear a bird hat the same way you did a decade ago?”