For summer outfit inspiration, check out 'And Just Like That'
'Yes,' I exclaimed, sitting bolt upright in bed, startling my husband as an image of Sarah Jessica Parker (SJP) wearing a midnight blue, long-sleeved gown appeared on my feed last week. (I am fully cognisant that pre-sleep scrolling is a terrible idea, but fashion has callous disregard for circadian rhythms.) Obviously, Vivienne Westwood, not obviously this season, the dress in question turns out to be a vintage piece once owned by the late designer herself and now worn by SJP to the premiere of And Just Like That… Season 3.
Streaming this weekend on OSN+, the third instalment of the Sex and the City (SATC) spinoff is set to bring a much-needed jolt of life to my style mojo this summer. Is it just me, or has all that greige, oversized suiting we've been exposed to for so long gotten a bit, well, greige? I am old enough to remember the time that Prada did grey in the late '90s and the entire high street followed suit; Marks & Spencer looked like its school uniform department had overrun the entire store. After a few seasons of ubiquitous restrained V-neck woollen sweaters, it's no wonder sense went out of the window and brightly coloured, bedazzled Juicy Couture tracksuits came rushing in.
Since then, fashion has done its cyclical thing; sometimes OTT and shouty, sometimes restrained and whispering. In the 2010s, the birth of Instagram inevitably went hand-in-iPhone-clutching-hand with the kind of exuberant street style best exemplified by then Italian Vogue fashion editor Anna Dello Russo (ADR). Peacocking became an actual job – influencing – and no one did it like ADR. Not since Carrie Bradshaw had completely bonkers style choices been so celebrated.
By this decade, macro trends – minimal, maximal, and everything in-between – have been rendered obsolete by the takeover of the algorithm, which feeds us increasing amounts of what we already like (in my case, Taylor Swift). But that hasn't stopped a pervasive desaturation of fun in pursuit of cool from dampening the fashion outlook. Even ADR has hung up her Dolce & Gabbana cherry hat for a life of meditation and yoga. Thank the fashion deities then, for SJP and her alter ego, Carrie, showing us that we can still find joy in fashion, that smiling is allowed, and that bow-adorned hot pink shoes are never a bad idea. Even in a rat-infested New York summer.
We are now two decades on from the conclusion of SATC. Parker turned 60 this year, and I am delighted that she refuses to let the advancement of time dull her style sparkle. That medieval corseted navy Westwood dress was inspired; nodding as it does to Bradshaw's iconic wedding gown, which the character re-wore to the Met Gala in Season 2 of And Just Like That… Personal style doesn't have an expiry date. Neither should it have rules. One day we can be Carrie in layers of tulle, the next we can be Miuccia in a minimalist Prada re-edition from the 2000s. I have to confess my own inclinations tend to fall on the Carrie side of the fence. In a fashion-off between saccharine-shaded lashings of tulle and androgynous griege suiting, 99 per cent of the time I'll side with the tulle.
There's something so life-affirming about going full Patricia Field, whose original costumes for SATC were as much a cast member as Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, Charlotte and, of course, NYC herself. So yes, I'll be tuning in for the fashion this weekend, just as much as the narrative thread that as Elie Habib, CEO of OSN+ & Anghami, says, 'Not only celebrate timeless friendships that transcend cultures, especially in our part of the world where close-knit social and family ties are deeply valued, but also reflect the evolving journeys we all experience, beyond the bounds of age.'
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