Editor’s Note: Delving into the archives of popular culture historical past, “Remember When?” is a NCS Style collection providing a nostalgic take a look at the movie star outfits that outlined their eras.
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Remember when Carrie Bradshaw of “Sex and the City” wore a Christian Dior newspaper-print dress? Bradshaw, the fashion-forward intercourse columnist, performed by Sarah Jessica Parker in the tv collection, outlined late Nineties and early 2000s way of life aspirations for Gen X girls when she and her three associates dominated the small display screen from 1998 to 2004. (The tv collection and sequel aired on HBO and Max, respectively, which share the similar mother or father firm as NCS: Warner Bros. Discovery.)
Cut on the bias and that includes a newspaper print, the now iconic outfit designed by John Galliano turned a chunk of trend legend, courtesy of a scene from season three, episode 17, which noticed Bradshaw carrying it whereas strolling in sluggish movement by the traffic-lined streets of Manhattan. In these temporary on-screen moments, the dress — which was from Dior’s ready-to-wear autumn-winter 2000 “Fly Girl” assortment — assured cult standing.
In January 2000, Galliano had already been at the helm of Christian Dior for 4 years, throughout which he injected the storied French trend home with an thrilling new vitality. The British designer had develop into identified for his fantastical collections and elaborate, narrative-driven runway reveals. That 12 months, he confirmed Dior’s spring-summer high fashion assortment at the Palace of Versailles, the former residence of the French royal household.
Against this decadent backdrop, he despatched fashions down the runway in clothes, jackets and pants made to look stretched, slashed and distressed, accessorized with what seemed like rubbish discovered on the road — miniature whiskey bottles, for instance, and discarded kitchen utensils. Some fashions have been draped in what gave the impression to be layers of newspapers reimagined as voluminous pants or peeping by sheer slip clothes.
The assortment, titled “Hobo,” was impressed each by the displaced individuals the designer noticed whereas jogging and by the “Tramp Ball” development from the Nineteen Twenties and 30s whereby the rich dressed as the homeless for glamorous soirees. In this couture assortment, the newspaper print was taken from the trend pages of the International Herald Tribune.
While the trend press was complimentary of the assortment in evaluations, controversy quickly ensued. Social welfare advocates and French critics have been appalled. Was Galliano making an announcement on class and privilege with this assortment, or mocking the homeless? The homeless neighborhood staged protests outside Dior’s headquarters in Paris’ swanky eighth arrondissement.
The opprobrium precipitated Galliano to launch an official apology ten days after the assortment debuted, stating, “I never wanted to make a spectacle of misery.”
Nevertheless, at Dior’s autumn-winter 2000 ready-to-wear present, newspaper print once more made its method into the assortment, entitled “Fly Girl.” However, this time Galliano created the fictional “Christian Dior Daily” newspaper for the present and the design — impressed by Elsa Schiaparelli’s 1935 newsprint sample — which was seen on the runway printed on chiffon, leather-based, the lining of coats and on clothes. The garment that Parker would later put on was modeled in the trend present by Angie Schmidt.
In a “Sex and the City” episode titled “What Goes Around Comes Around,” which aired in October 2000, Parker’s character wore the piece along with her signature gold nameplate necklace, black lace Manolo Blahnik heels and a Fendi baguette bag — a imaginative and prescient of the fashionable New York lady whose glamour outpaced her practicality. While the dress had a controversial “hobo chic” starting, on Bradshaw it turned emblematic of a brand new sort of heroine — imperfect, neurotic, difficult, messy but relatable.
Twenty-five years on, the cowl-neck slip dress continues to fascinate. At the May premiere of Jenna Ortega’s newest movie “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” the actor made headlines after she arrived onto the purple carpet carrying the archival robe. Ortega took a number of cues from Parker’s on-screen model (she donned an identical gold pendant necklace and smoky eye make-up) however completed the look with a gold slingback heel.
Following its runway debut, the dress went into manufacturing. Today, when it reveals up on the secondary market or at auctions, it is taken into account a trend holy grail, promoting for a lot of instances its estimate. In December 2024, two similar variations of the historic dress occurred to go to public sale that very same month — the first was at Kerry Taylor Auctions in London, and the second at public sale home Sotheby’s in New York. In each situations, the dress far exceeded its estimated promoting value. In London, it fetched £55,000 ($69,000) — practically tripling its estimate. And in New York, it greater than doubled the anticipated value, promoting for $54,000.
In an electronic mail, Sotheby’s advised NCS that it acquired the coveted dress from a non-public collector who bought it new when the “Fly Girl” assortment was first launched practically 25 years in the past.
“It is by John Galliano at his peak during the Dior years. This fact alone makes it a desirable vintage collector’s item,” mentioned Lucy Bishop, who oversaw Sotheby’s “Fashion Icons” sale.
Galliano later repurposed the print as “the Galliano Gazette” for his namesake label and has since launched a number of industrial collections that includes the famed motif. None have captured the zeitgeist fairly like the unique, although celebrities together with Rita Ora have worn an iteration of it.
Galliano was fired from Dior in 2011 for a public antisemitic tirade and ousted from his namesake model a month later. (He later apologized for his habits.) But his trend legacy nonetheless evokes. More just lately, designer Demna (who solely goes by his first title) gave his tackle newsprint for Balenciaga’s spring-summer 2018 assortment, overlaying cardigans and shirts in the motif as a response to “fake news” made well-known by Donald Trump’s tweets.
Newspapers, as soon as solely a platform to distribute day by day happenings, are persevering with to encourage, solely in a unique guise. With nostalgia for 2000s trend persevering with to rise, the recognition of the design has made its approach to mainstream trend manufacturers, with the likes of Réalisation Par, Shein and Zara all releasing their very own variations of the print.
So enduring is the type that Bradshaw truly wore the dress once more in 2010’s “Sex and the City 2” film. With the third season of SATC reboot “And Just Like That…” launched this week, whether or not she’ll dig it again out of her closet stays to be seen.