Designers Danny Santiago and Molly Rogers Talk ‘Sex and the City’ Fashion – WWD

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Designers Danny Santiago and Molly Rogers Talk ‘Sex and the City’ Fashion – WWD

New York City is getting a fresh dose of the fashion from “Sex and the City.”

Costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago, protégés of the series’ original stylist Patricia Field, have teamed up to curate an immersive “Sex and the City” experience in SoHo, from Thursday to Sunday, at 477 Broadway, called “And Just Like That…It’s Been 25 Years, a Sex and the City Experience.”

Rogers and Santiago serve as the fashion brains behind “Sex and the City” spinoff “And Just Like That.”

Tickets for the event have already sold out.

Fashion has long played a part of the character’s stories in the franchise, since its 1998 debut on HBO. Main character Carrie became known for her fashion choices, wearing everything from Alexander McQueen the Betsey Johnson.

Famed costume designer and stylist Field was the force behind the looks in the original six seasons of the show, nominated five times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Series five times, winning in 2002.

Sarah Jessica Parker in Carrie’s famed apartment.

See individual photo captions / MEGA

For “And Just Like That,” Field handed the reigns to Rogers and Santiago, who costume “And Just Like That,” which will debut its second season in June.

“People want to see these fashion objects in person, it’s been 25 years, some of these fashion pieces from the show feel like long-time friends,” Rogers said. “It’s been an amazing thing to be part of a show that’s had such a long shelf life.”

Many of the pieces for the exhibition came from Sarah Jessica Parker’s wardrobe.

Parker has kept many of the looks she’s worn in “Sex and the City,” which made Rogers’ and Santiago’s job easier, they said. “She hoarded wisely,” Rogers said.

The cast of “Sex and the City,” season two, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall.

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Both Rogers and Santiago were determined not to present half-looks, and the exhibit will include six mannequin displays with full outfits from both “Sex and the City” and “And Just Like That.” The exhibit will also feature a shoe wall with 27 pairs of shoes, including more of Carrie’s famed Manolo Blahniks, and glass display cases for some of the series’ famed handbags — Santiago stopped shy of confirming that Carrie’s famous Fendi baguette bag would be featured, but did say: “There might be a riot if there was no Fendi baguette bag in this exhibit.”

“There are some great visuals the team has put together that the fans will be able to walk through and get a good history of the show and the critical fashion moments people love and still talk about until this day,” Santiago said.

“I was sitting there writing placards to go with looks for the show, and I was begging someone to please fact-check everything,” she said. “There are ‘Sex and the City’ fans who can look at an outfit and know the exact season, episode and the dialogue that took place during the scene it was in. I didn’t want to get caught in an untruth.”

The City

Rogers said when they originally conceived the fashion on “Sex and the City,” Field stated, “This is our opportunity to create a moving fashion magazine and do TV style the way no one has ever done before.”

“Carrie’s style went so well with New York City,” Rogers said. “There’s those people in New York City who dress like peacocks. They love to go out, dress up and carry themselves in a way that you just don’t see in other cities. Carrie had such a confidence to her, and she was so whimsical and playful with her style. She didn’t follow any rules, which is indicative of someone in New York City.”

Rogers said within 25 years of the show, “The fashion had to evolve because the women evolved. Time pass and we all evolve, and if you don’t, you’re going to get left behind. One of the things we really had to think about with ‘And Just Like That’ was Miranda’s evolution. Cynthia Nixon, who played her, transitioned to gray hair in the first season and she went from being a corporate lawyer in the original series to a student. That was a huge metamorphosis.”

She added, “Fashion in itself has also changed so much because we have social media now, which we didn’t have back in the original run of the show. Things were more underground back in the day. That relates to their style evolution because we live in a different world.”

“And Just Like That” Season Two

For “And Just Like That,” Rogers and Santiago try to steer clear of social media’s influence.

“It’s important to keep the outside world at bay in a fitting room, otherwise you will work frozen in fear,” Rogers said.

Despite that, Santiago said, “We are also constantly bombarded by fashion now because it’s got to constantly change. Fashion has to keep up with momentum of Instagram and social media, which is instantaneous.”

With the full season two trailer of “And Just Like That” released, fans have already started picking at some of the fashion moments. Many viewers are highly anticipating Lisa Todd Wexley’s (played by Nicole Ari Parker) red Valentino couture dress moment with statement headpiece. The latest trailer also features a shopping moment with Carrie and multiple Bergdorf Goodman bags filled with shoes.

“We talked Carrie into a shoe that she wouldn’t normally bring home, but we thought it would be fun,” Rogers said. “We are calling it the ‘Art Basel‘ shoe because it’s so off the radar. We hope people spot it when the episode comes out.”

Of the plethora of designer brands the audience can expect for the second season of “And Just Like That,” there will be both newcomers and established fashion houses who have loaned to the costume department for “Sex and the City” since the ’90s. A few designers and brands included for season two are JW Anderson, Loewe, Valentino, Carolina Herrera, Oscar de la Renta, Awake Mode and Jacquemus.

Santiago said the biggest challenge with TV costuming nowadays is, “People see something on the runway, and it might not be months later until we shoot it. It’s more work to have those fashion moments that haven’t already been seen on a celebrity or red carpet event. Sometimes there’s runway shows that happen, then the next week a celebrity is wearing something off that runway that doesn’t hit stores for months. Luckily for us, some of these designers are such great friends of ours and the show, they will create some custom special moments just for the series.”

Some fashion houses have even held back on rolling out certain products featured in the show until the day after the episode airs, to give them a bit of exclusivity — like a see now, buy-now approach, but for television instead of the runway.

Fans can also expect more vintage fashion moments mixed with luxury brands for “And Just Like That.”

“Carrie was ahead of her time mixing vintage pieces with new designer garments,” Santiago said. “When the show first premiered people wondered why someone would wear used clothes. Now people into fashion mix vintage with new designer pieces all the time. The attitude toward that has changed completely, and we always loved finding those one-of-a-kind vintage things that made Carrie so much of Carrie. You could never just label her as a one kind of brand girl like Chanel, Valentino or Dior girl. She took everything she wore, whether new designer or vintage, and gave it her own personality.”

Season two of “And Just Like That” premieres on Max on June 22.

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