Patricia Field would never be caught dead in tracksuit bottoms. But here’s a secret – the red-haired, straight-talking style siren does wear them off duty. “I wear them at home if it’s cold and I want to warm up a bit,” she explains. “But I don’t go out and about in that.” The storied costume designer is telling me about a trip she made to Paris ahead of Netflix’s Emily in Paris, for which she is a consultant. “I went to check out the Paris chic. Everybody was just in jeans, sweatpants and hoodies. I called Darren Star [the show’s creator] and said, ‘this is where Paris chic came to die’,” she sighs, before adding, cuttingly, “I don’t know; I just prefer identity.”
Nobody knows sartorial identity quite like Field. The 81-year-old is famous for masterminding the wardrobe of one of TV’s greatest fashion icons: Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw. Played by Sarah Jessica Parker, the character became an instant style maven when the HBO series premiered in 1998 – and there wasn’t a pair of sweatpants in sight. Whether it was a purple sequin Fendi baguette, a John Galliano for Dior newspaper dress, or a $5 tutu, Carrie’s eclectic and often rather bonkers outfits acquired cult status to the point that they became characters of their own, firmly establishing themselves in the pages of fashion’s history books. Despite the series ending almost 20 years ago, Field’s work is still regularly commemorated on social media, mostly via the hugely popular account @everyoutfitonsatc, which boasts 738,000 followers – including Parker herself and Cynthia Nixon, who played Carrie’s slightly dowdier-dressed pal, Miranda Hobbes.
