What can we gush about Sex and the City that hasn’t already been gushed?
As it turns out: plenty.
There is a ton of trivia and fun facts about the fashionable film. Here’s a sampling (SPOILER ALERT):
South Florida stylists Paolo Nieddu (Scarlett Johansson) and Danny Santiago (W and Ocean Drive magazine) helped costumers Patricia Field and Molly Rogers (they have wardrobed the cast since the show began on HBO). Many of the vintage pieces are from Santiago’s warehouse in Miami. Jessica Replansky and Nieddu scoured Goodwill and countless New York vintage shops for the scene where Carrie cleans out her closet.
Sarah Jessica Parker makes 81 costume changes in the movie. As for the leads collectively: “I would estimate that there were well over 300 changes for these four women,” Field said in press materials. “And there were many other characters with one or two changes. I never counted up, but I’m sure it was over a thousand costumes. It was monumental.” Field even pressed her personal vintage Dior booties into service.
“Everything that’s not borrowed I keep,” Parker said on the TV Guide channel. The movie version was filmed during the bi-annual designer shows in Paris and Milan, so many design houses could only loan a few pieces, sometimes for only a few hours. Many European outfits had to be returned within minutes of being worn on camera.
For the Vogue fashion shoot in the movie, editrix Anna Wintour had to approve the script, the gowns and even the background players (photographer Patrick Demarchelier, hairstylist Serge Normant, makeup artist Gucci Westman and editors André Leon Talley, Plum Sykes and Lawren Howell). It took eight weeks for Wintour to approve the wedding gowns used in the scene (Vera Wang, Christian Lacroix, Christian Dior, Oscar de la Renta and Vivienne Westwood). It is the only scene that Field did NOT fashion direct.
The $25,000 Vivienne Westwood wedding gown had an inner tube sewn inside the gown so it would not drag on the New York street. The bridesmaids are all wearing Zac Posen gowns. Parker rarely misses a Posen (or Narciso Rodriguez) fashion show in New York.
The fashion show that the four women attend in the movie is also by Westwood, who is most famous for ushering in the punk look in the ’70s. Carrie is wearing Dolce & Gabbana; Charlotte is in Gianfranco Ferré; Miranda is wearing J. Mendel and Prada; while Samantha is in a Fur by PK and Sonia Rykiel. Hip-hop honeys Kelis and Lil Kim are also in the front row.
Field has launched a capsule collection of shoes and matching clutch handbags for Payless Shoes that retail for less than $35. There is a ballet flat, a Roman-inspired strappy flat sandal, a mixed-metallic heeled slide and a round-toe pump. This is her second time with the discount footwear retailer. The first was tied to her Oscar nomination for wardrobing The Devil Wears Prada in 2006.
Field has won two Emmys for costuming. She also works for Cashmere Mafia and the 2009 movie Confessions of a Shopaholic. At PatriciaField .com, you can order nameplate necklaces, Eiffel Tower handbags, canvas totes and the leather half-gloves.
Kristin Davis (or Charlotte for you Sex-aholics) has a clothing line in the South’s Belk stores this fall. You can read more about what is coming at Belk.com. The collection will include intimates, sleepwear, footwear, handbags and jewelry, with prices ranging between $38 and $240.
The breakfast/coffee shop scene has Carrie and Lily coloring in a Cinderella book. Carrie is coloring Cinderella’s glass slippers blue, a reference to the blue Manolo Blahnik shoes that Big puts on Carrie’s foot at the film’s finale. Also, Carrie reads Cinderella to Lily when putting her to bed.
Lily places Carrie’s pink Swarovski crystal-encrusted cell phone in a Judith Leiber minaudiere clutch that retails for $4,300.
Carrie’s hair color change is actually a wig by Martial Corneville, who also worked on The Bourne Ultimatum and Charlie Wilson’s War.
The Manolo Blahnik shoes Carrie places in her new walk-in closet retail for $525. The company, wisely, named a shoe after Sarah Jessica Parker.
The fine jewelry for the movie was made by H. Stern, Fred Leighton, Verdura, Carol Tannenbaum, Masha Archer, Itay Malkin, Mikomoto, Jennifer Fisher, Lia Sophia, Cartier, Kenneth Jay Lane, Chanel, Yossi Harari, Bismark, Jacob & Co., Noir and Roberto Cavalli.
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