The AJLT costume designers said ‘no fucking way’ to dressing Samantha

Why isn’t Carrie wearing a cheek-scraping Vivienne Westwood bustle skirt from AW98? Why is she wearing so much plaid? And those side bags beloved by Mumsnet users? What happened to the panache? The erratic mess trussed up in hot couture? Perhaps the reason Ms Bradshaw no longer dresses with the same savoir-faire is because she’s now the ageing co-host of a failed podcast. Or perhaps it’s because her sense of identity has gone untethered since the death of the one person she always measured herself against. Or perhaps it’s just because she’s… not as cool as she once was?

Historically, Carrie’s fashion choices were about being frivolous and effervescent and somehow looking like she had her shit together despite being in significant credit card debt and making terrible romantic decisions. The women of AJLT are no longer the fabulous antiheroines of a pre-internet New York, they are the neurotic heads of parent-teacher associations and mature students who get confused at even the most whitebread slang. I’ve lost count of how many times Miranda has misused the word “ghosting”, for example. The lives of these protagonists – though still aspirational in a low-lit hotel bar sort of way – are cloistered from the dive bars and buzzy restaurants that gave the original franchise its high-low appeal.

In the seventh episode of this new series, Charlotte logs onto OpenTable to book a romantic Valentine’s dinner, which is not something people generally do unless they’re unsure of where to go. And Carrie (who has always been a bit of a prude) has become evermore prurient in her middle age, to the point where she refuses to say the word “vagina” on air and subsequently fumbles a major advertising deal for her podcast. Die-hard fans often contest the authenticity of these character developments, and yet, And Just Like That... remains the only thing capable of soothing a rattled nervous system, cradling viewers in nostalgia and paint-by-numbers plot lines. “I’m still fighting to save Sex and The City,” Carrie says at one point. “I’m not even sure if it needs me anymore.” 

The most genuine of Carrie’s looks are not the Babushka outfits or the Joker pantsuits (which seem like obvious costume gags) but the pigeon clutches and balloon heels sourced from Jonathan Anderson and Loewe, being the most accurate translations of Carrie’s absurd, main character syndrome. “We knew the pigeon was gonna fly on social media,” Molly Rogers, the lead costume director says from a plush suite in London’s Rosewood hotel. “But we don’t premeditate any of this stuff.” The internet has created a new means for almost all pop culture to be tirelessly memed, but this says more about the way entertainment is received than how it’s produced. “I don’t think we put that into mind when we’re doing our fashion,” Danny Santiago adds. “We try to create things we like and enjoy seeing. We don’t put any emphasis on what social media is gonna say because you can’t please everyone. There’s always gonna be a critique.”

The speed and scope of fashion have changed quite considerably since SATC first aired in the 90s. The convergent forces of social media and consumerism have transformed fashion into an entertainment vertical in its own right, which means its fandom stretches further and there’s less of an insider attitude that might have once collected around John Galliano’s newspaper dresses. “Things go viral as soon as they appear on the runway,” Rogers says. “And someone would have already worn it on the red carpet. So I think And Just Like That... is more about clothes, whereas Sex and The City is more about fashion. Nothing can be underground.” So when Carrie emerges in a puffer dress taken from Moncler and Pierpaolo Piccioli’s 2019 collaboration, it feels like less of an IYKYK moment and more of a celeb cameo.

Of course, the characters still care about fashion (or at least labels) and much of AJLT’s plot revolves around their belongings. Carrie wears her wedding dress to the Met Gala, Seema’s Birkin gets stolen, and Charlotte declares war on a second-hand site when her daughter sells off her childhood wardrobe to help fund her music career – which begs the question: does Charlotte care more about Chanel than her own offspring? “Well, isn’t the daughter adopted?,” Rogers says, with a full-throated cackle. “With Seema, it was one of the first luxury items she had bought so it wasn’t so much what the bag cost but about what it represented. It’s like when Carrie gets mugged for her Fendi.” That Birkin was also one of Seema’s longest-standing relationships, the loss of which encourages her to confront her own commitment issues. 

It’s as subtle as a bull in a china shop, but these moments of sartorial self-reflection have become as much a part of the show’s reputation as its lewd puns. It’s like when Charlotte goes to the Met in a hoop-skirted BDSM gown, the psychic break of a manic helicopter parent expressing itself as a circus MC. “There are a lot of S&M references,” Rogers says. “Even the Hot Fellas uniform is taken from Tom of Finland’s illustrations. So when we started talking about doing that latex Sweet Gwendoline look for Charlotte, Michael Patrick King [writer and showrunner] was like, ‘What, again?’.” See also: Miranda fumbling to get her legs into a strap-on harness in episode one, which was a welcome break from the unshapely rucksack that she was near-surgically attached to throughout the first series. “Oh, blame that on the props department,” Rogers says. “This time around she’s in California getting tattoos. She’s going through it and I think that reflects in what she wears. Like cowboy boots on the beach,” Santiago says. 

Miranda is, however, still lumbered with Che. “For me, it works. I don’t think you could find anyone more opposite to Steve but that’s what happens with mid-life crises. Someone cheats with someone the spouse cannot believe they’re with. And it just makes me think, is Miranda searching or is she lost?” The same could be said for all the protagonists, all of whom have reached their 50s and lost sight of who they are. Miranda (the industrious lawyer) is sleeping in her professor’s spare room, Charlotte (the cooing trad wife) is languishing in the marital home, and Carrie (the neurotic anthropologist) is raking over the debris of her past. “I feel like you can see that when she goes to meet Aidan,” Rogers says. That night was full of expectations so Carrie would have stood in front of her closet looking for a clean slate. I think she would have thought ‘What’s my most classic, grown-up look?’. But that’s just me, you’d have to ask Sarah.” 

Rogers jokes that they’ll all be wearing turbans in a retirement home should the show continue to do well, but what about Samantha? Kim Cattrall – who has hitherto expressed zero desire to be associated with AJLT – made a shock announcement earlier this month when it was revealed that she’d be returning to the franchise for one single scene. Much has been made of Cattrall’s alleged feud with Sarah Jessica Parker and Michael Patrick King and the actor was reported to have filmed the cameo without any members of the cast present and with OG customer designer Patricia Field – who opted out of AJLT to focus on styling Emily In Paris – on sole fashion duties. “I just thought that if I’m going to come back I gotta come back with that Samantha style, I gotta push it and we did,” the actor said.

“We haven’t watched that moment but I know what I would have dressed her in. I’m not gonna say, though! It’s a good one, but I’ve got in trouble for it,” Rogers says, gesturing to a nervous publicist sitting in the far corner of the room. But did that not feel like leaving an itch unscratched? Would Rogers and Santiago not want to have revisited Samantha’s legendary wardrobe for one last time? Rogers bows her head and locks eyes with me. “No. Fucking. Way,” she says in an emphatic and decisive tone. At this point, the show’s publicist sits up and brings the interview to a swift, 10-minute close. “I keep telling people, you better tamp down your expectations,” she adds, while Santiago laughs in agreement. “Because she could be sitting in a bath for all we know. Seriously, you need to get people need to calm down.” 

And Just Like That... airs on Thursdays on Sky Comedy and NOW TV.