This Summer, my Instagram and Tik Tok feeds have blown up with women recreating outfits worn by Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, documenting their hunt to source and style vintage pieces from the show.
Some of the hype around Carrie’s looks can be attributed to the release of the third season of the show’s reboot And Just Like That, which began drip-feeding episodes from the end of May. While the show landing on Netflix in Europe and the US has also fuelled the growth in the fandom of Carrie's fashion. Though the main character’s looks have remained a point of cultural reference since the show first aired in 1998.
Like many of my generation, I had never watched the show before spring this year, partly due to the fact that it aired from 1998 to 2004, and I was born in 2001. But Carrie’s legacy as a fashion icon informs the way that many of my fellow Gen Z are now dressing.
I was drawn to watching the show by the clothes after following online creators like personal shopper and curator @sarahbelleelizabeth on Tik Tok, who sources classic pieces from Carrie’s wardrobe. Some of my favourites in her collection include the Chloe horse trousers, J’adore Dior logo top, and silver Manolo Blahniks, which Carrie famously wore to a party at her friend’s home, but went missing in the episode ‘A Woman’s Right to Shoes’.
My dream piece is Carrie’s rare purple sequinned Fendi baguette bag, which goes for anywhere between £3,800 to £9,000 on the re-sale platform Vestiaire Collective.
Aside from the baguette, Gen Z are buying other bags worn by Carrie, like Dior saddle bags and the rare Fendi ring clutch from 2003. Like Sarah Belle Elizabeth, most women showcasing their Carrie inspired outfits online buy pieces second-hand on platforms like Posh Mark and eBay, or simply find similar items in thrift shops.
I have always been a girl who chooses comfort over aesthetics when it comes to footwear, but after watching six seasons of Carrie pounding the streets of New York in heels, I found myself influenced.
Delving deeper into Carrie’s world of flamboyant dressing inspired me to bring more experimentation and fun into my own outfits. I find it can be easy to become safe and repetitive when getting dressed, but after watching the original series myself, I couldn’t help but start incorporating aspects of Carrie’s looks into my own outfits, including silk scarves, sequin skirts, and of course, heels.
My first Carrie-inspired purchase were gold heels for an eye-watering £245 — but I have no regrets
Carrie is best known for her love of shoes, which got so out of hand that in season four, episode 16, she realised she was about to lose her apartment, and with no savings or anywhere to live, had spent a shocking $40,000 — which at that time could have been her downpayment for a home – on shoes.
My first Carrie-inspired purchase was Mavi gold heels from Rixo for an eye-watering £245 – for a 24-year-old journalist this is the financial equivalent of one of Carrie’s beloved Manolo Blahniks which she bought for around $400 a pair. But I have no regrets – these heels have become one of my most prized possessions. They make me feel fabulous, so I treasure my new four-inch stilettos which I have long avoided, but now wear more regularly.
An increasing number of young women like me are wearing heels more often – for events, to work, and for casual occasions. A friend and I even planned a whole night out so that we could wear heels we had recently purchased – I of course wore my Mavi heels and she wore a pair of vintage suede purple boots she bought on Vinted.
What keeps women coming back to Carrie’s looks, 21 years after the show finished, is the individuality, creativity and non-conformity of her style. Her looks are chic and classic, yet also bold, experimental and fun.
More of my favourite Carrie pieces include the white tutu she wore in the first episode, the “naked dress”, a nude DKNY mini-dress she wore for a photoshoot and later to her first date with Mr Big, and the Vivienne Westwood green skirt adorned with a white poof on the back – which inspired a Zendaya look on the Challengers press tour last year.
One of Carrie’s most iconic looks – the newspaper dress from John Galliano’s fall/winter 2000 collection for Dior – was worn by Jenna Ortega at the premier of her new film Hurry Up Tomorrow in May.
New brands such as Handover, which sells sequinned clothing, have gained recognition for Nineties and 2000s inspired pieces, including a pink midi skirt which women on Tik Tok are using to imitate a famous Carrie look from the show.
This era’s popularity is also marked in the luxury market by Jimmy Choo’s new archive capsule collection, released to celebrate the brand’s 30th anniversary. It features eight iconic shoes from the Nineties and 2000s, including the 72318 model, a lilac strappy heeled sandal with a feather on the toe strap worn by Carrie in the show. The shoe came full circle when Alex Cooper, Call Her Daddy podcast host, recently wore the re-issued style in an interview with Carrie actor Sarah Jessica Parker about the new season of And Just Like That.
We know that from a sustainability perspective, we should be moving away from fast-fashion and leaning more towards conscious consumption, yet fast-fashion trends, spread through internet virality, have created a phenomenon in which so many people have lost a sense of personal style. Instead, many of us buy into short-trend cycles which often stay in for less than a season – think labubus, chunky bangles, and polka dots.
Perhaps the new wave of obsession with Carrie’s unique style will help my generation to turn instead to statement pieces with the goal of curating a sense of long-lasting individual style, instead of chasing trends.
Youtuber Emma Chamberlain, 24, is one of the young women championing a less trend-driven way of curating a wardrobe, which she explained in a video last November titled “I got rid of (almost) everything.”
Emma said once she started making money through content creation, she constantly bought new clothes with the hope that having more would make her more stylish. Yet she realised that having too much became problematic, finding herself spending hours digging through her wardrobe to build an outfit around single pieces, many of which were “too trendy”, resulting in her rarely reaching for them.
Emma found she barely wore 95 per cent of her closet, so decided to purge her collection, keeping only the pieces she regularly wore and liked. Emma said she has been left with a “capsule wardrobe” which has a “cohesive vibe” so that all her clothing and accessories can be mixed and matched to create endless outfits.
To the fashion-curious among us, I say follow Carrie’s lead and don’t be afraid to buy the heel, hat or sequinned piece. Be conscious about your consumption, but channel what Carrie did best – be bold and have fun with your clothes.
