Costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago spill behind-the-scenes secrets.
Anytime I see a woman wearing a flower, I think of Carrie Bradshaw.
Floral accessories have become a classic fashion motif for the character since Sex and the City first premiered 25 years ago, popping up in different permutations as Carrie grows and changes. (One of my favorites is this one, which has aged much better than the antiquated conversations about bisexuality anchoring that episode.) My association between Ms. Bradshaw and the idea of petals as punctuation for an outfit illustrates how strongly this fictional universe has embedded itself into the brains — and closets — of its fans.
All these years later, And Just Like That finds Carrie and her New York City compatriots at a very different phase of life, but the friendships and the fashion feel just as fulfilling as they always did. The new series has given us lots to debate, from whether the characters feel like their old selves to whether they’re in the right relationships, but you can’t argue with the fact that each episode features at least a couple of jaw-dropping looks that bring the fabulous fantasy we crave.
The characters make these styles look easy to pull off, but each ensemble is the result of serious strategizing — and the masterminds behind it are costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago. As we gear up for the season two finale of AJLT, airing Aug. 24, Katie Couric Media called up this talented duo to get their behind-the-scenes stories of some of the most memorable looks they brought to the last 10 episodes.
Carrie Bradshaw’s wedding dress
This second season kicked off with a seismic sartorial bang. The first episode united a classic look from the franchise’s history with the event that’s effectively become the Super Bowl of fashion: Carrie Bradshaw attending the Met Gala in the show-stopping dress she wore to her ill-fated wedding in the first Sex and the City movie.
The Vivienne Westwood gown is instantly recognizable to any fan, but tracking it down 15 years after Sarah Jessica Parker first wore it was no simple task.
“We didn’t know what condition it was going to be in,” Santiago says. “We reached out, and [the Vivienne Westwood team] had to look for it and see what they needed to do to make it worthy of being on camera again. They did a little work on it and sent it to us, and it ended up fitting beautifully. We just needed to make a couple of alterations.”
The gorgeous blue cape on the back is a new addition; in the show’s storyline, it’s the piece made by an up-and-coming designer who fails to complete the dress it was supposed to go with, which leads Carrie to dig the wedding dress out of the closet. The fabric for the cape began as a totally separate ball gown, but the designers fell so in love with the color that they turned it into a new piece.
One reason the cape works so well is the way it matches the bird in Carrie’s hair, which also got a ton of attention when she first wore it in 2008. The headpiece is actually more than 100 years old, and it came from a store called New York Vintage. Because it’s so fragile, the designers had a back-up option, just in case, but it went unused.
“We had a stunt bird,” Rogers says. “The original bird is molting, as things do with age.”
Lisa Todd Wexley’s Met Gala masterpiece
Carrie isn’t the only one pulling out the stops for the Met Gala. Lisa Todd Wexley (played by Nicole Ari Parker) had a major moment of her own in this jaw-dropping piece by Valentino, which comes to life in a magical way as it drifts across a bustling city street.
Rogers and Santiago found their inspiration at a Valentino fashion show that took place on Rome’s Spanish Steps. They saw this headpiece as it appears in AJLT, but the dress was originally in a different color. They knew the fantastic movement of the gown would be perfect for this outdoor scene, and the hat is spot-on for the “Veiled Beauty” theme of the Met Gala in the show — but it took a big favor to get it all color coordinated.
“We reached out to Valentino and asked, ‘Is it possible that we could get this amazing look, but can we match it to that beautiful headpiece from the runway?'” Santiago recalls. “They were so amazing, and they made this beautiful couture piece for us, with this extended train. It must have been about 12 feet long.”
Rogers was equally overjoyed about making it happen in the right shade: “Red is the house of Valentino, and to have that catwalking across Park Avenue, that was a real bird in our cap for Danny and I. It was a moment.”
Seema’s signature color
OK, allow us one last mention of the Met Gala extravaganza. The shimmery gown on Seema Patel (Sarita Choudhury) was found in a location that may surprise you — an outlet mall. The Sawgrass Mills shopping mall near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to be exact.
“We saw that color on the back of a rack in Balmain,” Rogers tells us. The stunning shade has become a signature for Seema’s character. “It’s that slinky, copper, goldish, tarnished green that she wears so well. It’s just her color. She owns that color on the show.”
In true And Just Like That style, the costumers made the look their own by adding a hood — and a jaw-dropping necklace.
“We borrowed this massive amethyst from Lisa Eisner, who does absolutely beautiful jewelry,” Rogers says. “And we had to hold onto it because this scene shot over different months. Someone wanted to buy it, and we had to yell, ‘No! We have to keep it!'”
A very fashionable Halloween
In episode five, the ladies attend a Halloween-themed fundraiser, and I’m haunted just thinking about how much work it must have been to dress so many over-the-top extras. But, of course, it’s all about our stars, who sacrificed none of their chicness in order to fit the holiday dress code.
One of the highlights is Nya Wallace (played by Karen Pittman), who showed up to the party as Catwoman. And while there are so many iconic Catwomans to choose from (Rogers cited Zoe Kravitz’s look in 2022’s The Batman as one personal favorite), the AJLT team ultimately decided Nya’s inspiration would be Eartha Kitt, who played the iconic character in the 1960s TV series Batman.
“We found this beautiful Mugler and Wilford body suit to make Catwoman more modern. It’s an outfit that Nya could have put together, adding the ears and the mask and just coming up with something really sexy and beautiful. It looks so incredible on her,” Santiago says.
There’s also a little treat for fans who looked closely at Carrie’s accessories during this episode. She’s dressed up as Helen Gurley Brown, the legendary editor of Cosmopolitan from 1965 to 1997, and even her clutch is on theme.
“It’s like one of those ’80s hardshell pocketbooks with the covers of magazines on it,” Santiago says. “We got a Cosmo cover that we made — it’s a picture of Gia [Carangi], the model from the ’70s and early ’80s — and we placed that on there. It’s a little Easter egg for us to get a giggle out of.”
Carrie’s bomb cyclone coat dress
Many times, Rogers and Santiago get a big idea — and then they sit on it until the right moment comes along. (They even told us that Santiago currently has his eye on “an incredible flower” for Carrie that’s still waiting for the perfect scene.) One example of that is this elaborate get-up from episode six, which was the eventual conclusion of a thought they first had at the end of AJLT season one.
“We were really excited about putting a massive, oversized, puffy coat on her during the Paris scene in the finale, with Big’s ashes on the bridge,” Rogers says. “But with those beautiful sleeves on that Valentino couture gown, we were like, ‘Well, this isn’t our chance.'”
Then they got a lovely surprise with this season’s “Bomb Cyclone” episode, which finds Carrie braving the streets of New York City in the middle of a snowstorm.
This masterpiece is a collaboration between Valentino and Moncler that never even made it to a runway, since it was created at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. But Santiago clocked it at an intimate presentation show — and he never forgot it. When this scene came along, the AJLT team reached out to Moncler, and they were able to pull this from the archives.
“It appears like it’s a one-piece coat dress, but it’s actually three pieces: a skirt, a jacket, and a hood,” Santiago says. “It’s all quilted, and it does weigh a lot. There are yards and yards and yards of fabric in it.”
LTW’s shroud for the snow
Aside from looking fabulous, this ensemble told an important story — and also served AJLT‘s mission of bringing more diversity to a show that was once unnaturally white, given that it takes place in one the world’s biggest melting pots.
“I have to say, with the comments I was reading online, I was so interested in the fact that this meant so much to so many African American women,” Rogers says. “I was really touched by that.”
While it’s no huge task for Carrie to trudge out into the snow, it’s more complicated for Lisa, who’s trying to make it to the Museum of Modern Art, where she’s being honored as a Black filmmaker. But her car service cancels, and the wig she’s wearing isn’t designed to withstand the elements. She grabs some protective headwear and walks through the storm, giving us a moving scene in which she puts on her hair in MoMA’s restroom. “We’re not gonna let a little snow stop us, are we?” she tells another Black woman who watches this unfold.
The scene’s been praised for offering an important look at the Black hair care experience, and the costume that made it work so beautifully was a complicated patchwork of finds. The hat is by Roger Vivier, the sweater is Christian Dior, and the poncho is by Balmain (found at the same Floridian outlet mall as Seema’s Met Gala gown).
And to bring the entire look together: “Valentino lent us some beautiful handbags, and we thought, what a great pop of color to have this fuchsia bag placed against the black, in the snow,” Santiago says. “We knew how beautiful this was going to be.”
Aidan’s controversial jacket
“When I see this picture,” Rogers says, “I think, ‘Everybody was in love with one half of the photo, and everybody was really split about the other half of the photo.”
The return of Carrie’s former flame Aidan (played by John Corbett) was a major moment for longtime fans, but it was the outerwear he showed up in that really set the Internet aflame. (Even our very own Katie went viral for asking on Instagram, “What about that weird belted jacket??????????”)
Here’s a better look at the piece, which seemed to bother viewers who felt like it looked too tightly bound on a character who was known for his relaxed, casual wardrobe on Sex and the City.
Rogers says the team considered “hundreds” of jackets before landing on this one — and the specific styling was a choice made by Corbett based on the context of Aidan reuniting with his ex after 13 years.
“I felt like John wanted to not be open in the coat, and he wanted to be protective, which is why he buttoned it up and belted it,” she says. “I think it helped him be guarded in a way. That’s how I saw it. And others — the jury, the court, the Colosseum that we live and die by — they saw it as too military or something.”
The costumers wanted a jacket that didn’t scream “designer,” and they landed on this one from Belstaff, a brand Corbett has worn in his personal life.
“It’s very popular with sexy men, that jacket,” Rogers says.
“It’s a wax fabric that’s oiled, so it holds up to wear and tear,” Santiago adds. “There’s a certain ruggedness to it.”
The sheen of that textile offered one last detail you might have missed: “We crystallized Carrie’s Christian Siriano dress with these tiny black crystals, thinking of her stoop under the street lamp,” Rogers says. “In my mind, I thought Aidan would also have a shininess to him at the stoop, which you’re not going to get unless you’re standing there in leather — which isn’t his character.”
There’s one more thing about this supercharged scene that we can’t ignore. While most eyes were on Aidan’s jacket, the one Carrie wears on the way to meet him is pretty incredible itself. It’s vintage, and the costumers added gorgeous flower detailing to the back. Unfortunately, most of those flowers got removed for two reasons: Their weight adversely affected the jacket’s fit on Sarah Jessica Parker, and showrunner Michael Patrick King felt the bold look was too distracting for the scene.
But seeing the evolution offers fascinating insight into the costume department’s process, so here’s a look at the coat originally:
And here’s the stripped-down version that they eventually used in the scene:
Charlotte’s first-day-of-work dress
In episode eight, Charlotte York (played by Kristin Davis) takes a job at a high-powered art gallery after years of being a stay-at-home mom. Underneath this patterned coat is a slinky black dress that originally had a bright pink belt — which Charlotte removes because she’s self-conscious about how her body shape has changed in her 50s.
“I think any woman reentering the workforce at a certain age would have some sort of trepidation,” Rogers says. “It touches on, ‘I’m going back to work. It’s been a while. Where do I fit into all this?’ That’s a common thread in women’s lives.”
Actors famously seek flattering angles, but in this case, Davis was totally game to embrace discomfort in order to tell a story that would resonate with many.
“I was really happy that Kristin was like, ‘I’m gonna need some padding. I don’t want it to look like I pushed my stomach out. I really want to do this storyline justice,'” Rogers says. “We threw a padded pillow right under her navel, and it did the trick.”
Back to their roots in Carrie’s new home
It’s a big deal when Carrie Bradshaw moves to a new apartment, and to christen her sprawling space in Gramercy Park, these longtime friends dressed in iconic styles that are “very much in the lane of who these characters are,” according to Santiago.
Charlotte’s wearing an Oscar de la Renta dress with a matching handbag that will be in stores this fall. “It was wonderful that they got us that dress off the assembly line so we could shoot it so long ago,” Rogers says.
Carrie is sporting an oversized flower, one of her biggest signatures, but the blue coat is just as meaningful to the costumers. “It’s a little nod to Bill Cunningham, the New York City fashion photographer who passed. He always wore some form of a French blue workman’s jacket,” Rogers explains.
Then there’s Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), whose soft-colored Max Mara suit is an updated reference to the ’90s power suits she wore in the original series. Fans have criticized Miranda’s AJLT journey, claiming she’s been “totally at odds with her former self” as she left her marriage to Steve and her corporate-law attire behind. Recent headlines, though, have declared the show is “fixing its Miranda problem,” and this throwback suit could be read as a nod to that. But according to Rogers, Miranda’s wardrobe is all about the story AJLT has been telling since last season.
“The hubbub about Miranda — I’ve been looking online and everybody says, ‘Oh, thank God, she’s back. Miranda’s back.’ Well, she’s been a student. Why would we have ever put her in a suit on campus at Columbia?” she says. “I think sometimes people forget that we follow a script. We may look like a fashion magazine, but we do have plot points.”
A classically Carrie ensemble
“I mean, put that in a time capsule and open it up 50 years from now, and it’s gonna hold up,” Rogers tells us of this final outfit. “Classic Carrie, honestly.”
The dress is by Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini, the straw beret hat is by Gigi Burris Millinery, and the “little crazy jacket” is another find from the mall in Florida. But perhaps most fascinating are the shoes, which came from the closet of another character. Anytime the costumers bring in a new piece, they immediately assign it to a specific person on the show — but sometimes things get “pilfered” for a different actor.
“We stole those shoes from Kristin Davis,” Rogers says. “They were in the Charlotte closet, and Danny ran over there. He’s notorious for stealing from these characters.”
Describing what is an everyday task for himself but a total fantasy for the show’s legions of fans, Santiago adds, “I go digging in their closets sometimes.”
