Funny article on SATC and what it's meant for retail. I can say that I started getting excited about Birkin-style bags because of this show. Of course, I'm never going to have the jack to buy one (waiting list is closed and if you could buy one, they start at $6K), but I've found four replicas (not blatant fakes w/indicia) so far and I'm going to keep going.
washingtonpost.com
'Sex and the City' Gives High Style A Leg Up
By Robin Givhan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 9, 2004; Page C01
In its six seasons, the HBO series "Sex and the City" has served as the fashion industry's most successful runway show. It has been able to regularly accomplish what myriad fashion magazines and catwalk presentations only rarely achieve. "Sex and the City" forged a connection between the typical woman and the fashion industry's most esoteric styles.
The show, which will air its final episode next month, chronicles the love lives of four women living in Manhattan. It has also served as a premier advertising vehicle for high-end brands that previously were known only to those perched on the top rungs of the social ladder.
Thanks to "Sex and the City," a lot of people without the wherewithal to spend $450 on a pair of impractical shoes now know the names Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo.
In the show's second season, Carrie Bradshaw, the sex columnist played by Sarah Jessica Parker, wore a nameplate necklace and a Playboy bunny charm. Viewers followed suit. In Season 3, Carrie pinned oversize silk flowers to her lapel, and women across the country adopted the trend. And for all of the buzz about Fendi baguette handbags among fashion's inner circle, the pricey, bejeweled bags didn't become the subject of Starbucks coffee chatter until "Sex and the City's" third season, when the hunt for fake Fendis was a subplot. In Sunday's episode, Carrie pulled a
pink 
crystal-encrusted cell phone from her handbag and, if the show's Web chatroom is any indication, viewers across America will soon be turning their Nokias into craft projects.
The show caused a host of trends to burn white hot, but it may also have led to their burning out faster, says Peter Marx, president of Saks Jandel in Chevy Chase. And there are customers, he says, who don't want an item precisely because it is so popular.
But most retailers, notably those west of the Hudson River where the most forward fashions can be a difficult sell, have nothing but praise for the sales magic the show has worked over the years. "I've had men coming in and saying, 'My wife can't stop talking about this shoe, this dress, this bag worn by one of the girls on "Sex and the City," ' " says Ikram Goldman, owner of Ikram in Chicago. "Women who would never dream of spending that kind of money on clothes were coming in."
Now that the show is in its final season, Goldman wonders, "Who else is going to come along and expose Middle America to Jimmy Choo?"
On the show, the women mix designer merchandise with everything from vintage fashion to kitsch. It is as though a fashion magazine has come to life with amusing characters, compelling plotlines and emotion. "Sex and the City" is a runway presentation with dialogue.
"I for one, as a retailer, will be sorry to see the show go off the air because it's done so much for our business," says Karen Daskas, co-owner of Tender, a boutique in Birmingham, Mich. The show's characters "are always dressed up and pulled together. No one is running out of the house in a sloppy T-shirt and jeans.
"The women in this country who watch the show, the trends are right there in front of them," Daskas says. "These girls are in fashion every week."
"Sex and the City" has helped Daskas sell Jimmy Choo shoes and Pucci sportswear. Recently, while sitting in the Emanuel Ungaro showroom placing her spring orders, Daskas watched as a company representative set aside several items for use on the show. Daskas quickly added those items to her own order. It's not that customers are enticed simply because a garment is featured on the show. They are intrigued by the way it is worn, by the context and because they have a relationship with the characters.
"We see even the most outrageous outfit as something we can maybe pull off. Maybe not the entire outfit . . . but it somehow gives us just that little extra courage to pull out the hot pink bag with polka dots," Chanel Eatmon writes in an e-mail. Eatmon, 27, is one of the many women who log into the "Sex and the City" fashion forum on the Web, where everything from costly Christian Louboutin shoes (Season 4) to Krispy Kreme doughnuts (Carrie has a logo mug) is discussed.
"I can honestly say that without inspiration from SATC, I would not wear some of the things that I wear. For example, accessories. I love different coats, handbags and jewelry," writes Eatmon. "I have definitely stepped out of my comfort zone with coats. I have blue, tweed, black leather. I seem to buy about three coats a season!"
"Sex and the City" has demonstrated great faith in the fashion savvy of non-Manhattanites, as the show is one of the few places where runway fashion meets a kind of virtual reality without all of the explanatory captions and artificial empathy over high prices. "People are relating to these women," Daskas says. "They're very understandable, and they're doing screwy things." Carrie and her friends Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte have become virtual girlfriends who, every week, answer the fashion question: Where on Earth are you going to wear that?
"Carrie has my favorite wardrobe on the show because she mixes totally schlubby clothes with couture and manages to pull it off," e-mails Elizabeth Rafferty, 31. "One show, she wore a bandanna on her head, hausfrau style, with a sheer Chanel top, leggings, and stilettos. I guess she also made it okay to dress up a little more for casual events. She is always wearing a dress or skirt, even just to lunch or shop with the girls. I never did that until after seeing SATC. I always felt too dressy if I did that.
"I wear heels more often, especially with jeans or something that would otherwise be casual," Rafferty continues. "I wear hats and scarves and other head coverings more often. I try to accessorize my outfit every day. I definitely try to be more adventurous with my clothes."
"Sex and the City" may be remembered as helping to sell horseshoe necklaces, pink shearling coats and Hermes scarves for use as do-rags. But its lasting impact will be in the way that it used fashion as such a telling element in the lives of its characters.
Fashion helped to define Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte. It also gave them great pleasure. And it reminded audiences that it can do the same for them.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
SO...................
. Only 7 episodes left. My only consolation is that once SATC is off the new season of the Sopranos will be on.
THE BEST!!!
My thoughts
my mind sort of changed.
Hybrid Mode
