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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Ellie Violet Bramley

From cosmopolitans to vibrators, the cultural heft of Sex and the City

Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw and Kim Cattrall as Samatha Jones sit at a bar drinking cosmopolitans
Carrie Bradshaw and Samantha Jones drinking cosmopolitans in the 2010 film Sex and the City 2. Photograph: New Line Cinema/Hbo/Village Roadshow/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock

Before Sex and the City, the cosmopolitan was just vodka, cranberry juice, Cointreau and lime juice. Afterwards it was a symbol of girlfriends, sex, flirting and freedom. But it wasn’t only the image of the pink cocktail that the show revolutionised.

From the time it first aired in 1998, the show – and to a lesser extent its descendant, And Just Like That – has shaped the way we dress, eat, drink, date, exercise and work. What it did for the cosmo it also did for everything from nameplate necklaces to vibrators, catapulting them to pop-culture phenomenon status.

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