So, one of the many baffling things about And Just Like That has been the show’s handling of the pandemic. Just as the omicron variant had the rest of us are once again reorganizing our lives, reevaluating our risk tolerance and relearning which masks to wear (NIOSH-approved N95, KN95 and KF94 masks. Period.), the Sex and the City follow-up’s premiere saw Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte proclaiming that the pandemic was over. And, look, no shade. We’re dealing with an unpredictable, constantly evolving situation, and, like, who wants 10 episodes of Carrie Bradshaw just hanging out in her apartment during lockdown?
Twist: I do!
I mean, not really. But kinda. Hear me out: We all know that Carrie is a woman who dresses for herself. Her unique, eclectic, occasionally chaotic sense of style is rarely dictated by what men might find attractive or what anyone else might find appropriate. She wears whatever the hell strikes her fancy. Tutus? All the time. Knickerbockers and newsie caps? Why not! Rompers? Sure! An evil queen crown as wedding attire? Sign a b-tch up! There’s no end to the playful, left-of-center choices the character has made over the years. But while the glamorous gowns and statement looks get the lion’s share of the attention from the blogs and the Instas, I’ve always found the clothes Carrie wears when she’s home alone to be particularly fascinating.
Each episode of Sex and the City, of course, revolved around a column Carrie was writing. And so, would get these interstitial scenes of the character at home, typing away at her laptop and occasionally wandering around her apartment trying to organize her thoughts about a particular topic. To her immense credit, costume designer Patricia Field almost never phoned it in for these scenes. Rather than just knocking about the house in sweats and t-shirts, you always got the impression that Carrie was playing dress-up between paragraphs, throwing together odd little ensembles to amuse herself and take her mind off a looming deadline. I mean, who amongst us hasn’t spent an hour creatively rigging a set of overalls with a sheer button-down shirt when we should be writing?
All of which leads me to believe that Carrie probably had a blast playing dress-up during lockdown. When you dress up, you cheer up, as I remember Lynn Yaeger writing long ago, and I imagine that, rather than Big’s eatin’ to the oldies dinner routine, is what got Ms. Bradshaw through the seemingly endless sameness of life at home. Imagine the absurd accessorizing! The epic power clashing! “What day is it? Who cares! Now let’s see how this souvenir New York sweatshirt pairs with a vintage Lacroix bubble skirt…” “How many deafening patterns can I wear at once without giving my husband a stroke?” I really kinda would have loved to see that.
But, you’re thinking, what about the gowns! What about the couture! Well, as we learned this week, Carrie is certainly not opposed to hauling out a massive, unwieldy dress just to hang out at home. Give that lady a thing of Jiffy Pop and she may as well be at the Met Gala, god love her! As we’re all waiting patiently in our own little panic rooms for the omicron wave to crash, we could do worse than look to Carrie Bradshaw for stay-at-home style inspiration.
