Carrie Bradshaw may have made a career out of her fabulous fashion and expansive stiletto collection, but since the first season of Sex and the City landed on our screen over two decades ago, fans have long been perplexed by her aversion to painted manicures.
Despite trends in polishes ebbing and flowing as much as the clothes she wears, we’ve rarely seen the fictional writer without her bare nails. And while in 2023, the naked manicure is a growing TikTok-approved movement, proving to be a fashion statement in and of itself, the real reason for Bradshaw’s polish-free has been revealed—by SJP herself, no less.
“Carrie’s a writer, so she would have been typing originally on a proper typewriter,” Parker told Glamour. “She would have learned typing in high school, and she was a practical writer and a necessary writer and a romantic writer.”
The actress went on to add that manicures are unnecessary for her character because they “seemed (a) futile because it would always be messed up and (b) an obstacle on the speedy road toward thoughts being written.”
“It just never seemed that it was where Carrie would spend her time expressing herself.”
Aside from not fitting in with Bradshaw’s lifestyle, Parker noted that fresh polish simply wasn’t conducive to the filming process.
“We also don’t shoot in order,” she explained. “You’re moving from scene to scene, so practically speaking, it’s problematic to have a nail colour that’s got to match every single scene. It gets in the way of speed and economy.”
But as the HBO sequel And Just Like That released its second season, the actress teased that her character will be sporting some dark nail polish for a few scenes in later episodes.
“I thought it would be interesting to do, given the outfits and given the environment in which those scenes take place,” she said.
Executive producer Michael Patrick King also chimed in, admitting that he was surprised to see Parker on set with painted nails while filming in Brooklyn.
“I thought, ‘Wow, she’s wearing nail polish!’ And it’s a dark nail polish, which is interesting and surprising,” he said, adding that moves like that were part of the character’s appeal. “It’s always spontaneous. Carrie Bradshaw is spontaneous. She decides, ‘I’m going to wear this or that. I’m going to wear this long slip tutu to go get coffee. And, oh, maybe I’ll put on nail polish tonight.’”
“What’s great about the character is she is not guarded by rules. Even rules she makes up.”
Just like her on-screen persona, Parker is also known to pass up on polish. Back in 2011, she said, “I never do my nails… and I’ve probably had nail polish on my nails twice in 10 years.”
In 2016, she told People magazine that she typically just buffs and cleans her nails because of her demanding day-to-day life. “I use my hands a lot. I cook. I clean. I do laundry,” she said. “[Nail polish] is not practical in my life given what my hands need to do every day.”
But in a very Bradshaw move, Parker surprised fans with a black manicure to compliment her polka-dot dress at the Sex and the City 25th-anniversary party with her co-stars Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis.
