[speedy]

Hmm. . . the dreaded Carrie Bradshaw portfolio. I once heard her "look" described as "organ-grinder monkey." And, yup, sure was.

Maimy, you doll, wear them Chucks! I'd say pair 'em with knee-length, close-fitting white shorts, a man's wide belt, a tank (show off them fabulous 46-year-old shoulders), a nice watch (a cool steel chronograph, say), and Chanel No. 5.

[mouse]

re: age thing
not only is it about confidence, it's about freakin fashion sense. pink and black converse hi tops are a very different bird than payless tennis shoes. (by the way, i think converse look classy on everyone. i hope to be 75 and wearing converse and jeans)

i certainly had no intent on insulting anyone who may be older than the fifth grade here, but it seems to me that if we can come into this thread to bitch about people dressing unflatteringly to their size, era, hairstyle, or even in contrast to our own personal taste, we can also bitch about people dressing unflatteringly to other things.

jeeeeeeeze.

[raisingirl]

I fucking hate Sex and the City. Such a lame-ass show masquerading as a way of life, not the kind of life I'd ever want in a bazillion years. There, I said it! ::snickering::

[sixelacat]

hellotampon, I always thought of that outfit as "recycling", as she obviously took my great-aunt's wallpaper and made a coat of it....

[lucizoe]

I always loved Miranda's clothes...

that's all I got

[snafooey]

What bugged me is that they would take an outfit I actually like and then ruin it with a stupid belt/accessory, ugly jacket, or just deliberately wear it in an unflattering way. A dress like that is probably too pink, too poofy, too prommy for most people, but I think it totally suited her character and where she was going (literally and figuratively) in that episode.

[mandolyn]

i'm afraid i have nothing to contribute to the SITC discussion. i don't think i ever liked one friggin' outfit on that show. and as someone who's deathly allergic to high-heels, just looking at fuck-me pumps gives me anxiety attacks.

re: the age thing. i think it's all about confidence. how you wear something. i have yet to wear my pink and black converse hi-tops out in public. because i'm a 46 yr-old-pussy.

today's COF is taking place several miles above the earth: i think NASA should rethink the white socks thing. perhaps all is sterile up there, but those socks are still looking grungy. and the chick with the pony-tail is rocking the pippi-longstocking look in zero gravity. and not in a good way.

[snafooey]

Fair enough, Bklynhermit - but my point was simply that the intention was never "classical elegance" on the one hand or "fashion victim" on the other on either the creators' or the costumers' part (and the guy who does the commentaries was chiefly involved throughout the whole series - maybe more of a head writer? - who worked closely with P. Field). She didn't blindly wear whatever was popular (again, Samantha always seemed to fall under that category more, right down to the episode where she goes to war over the right handbag); she tried way too hard to be "unique" (often with disastrous results) precisely b/c she didn't want to look like every other fasion plate.

ETA: Hee - thanks, Lot49.

[hellotampon]

i think one of the worst outfit SJP wore on that show was the gingham crop top.

I was looking through that site that lot49 linked to see if they showed a picture of it, and they don't, but I noticed another one that I really, really hated:
http://www.hbo.com/city/look/carrie_6.shtml

[bklynhermit]

yeah, um, all those pictures are pretty much the sort of thing you'd see this one girl who everybody knew was trying Way Too Hard wear to a party.

which i'm pretty sure was the costume designers' intended look for her, quite self-consciously.

[margot]

Maimy -re: long column wrap skirts.

I AM a six-footer with nary a curve, and I can tell you, they still don't work! We had them introduced as part of our uniform, in a crazy print in nice polyester silk. Mmm.....

BTW, has anyone else got armies of girls in those 'shit-catcher' pants wandering around? The jersey ones, gathered waist, with the crotch down by the knees.
They're sort of growing on me, but are they wrong?

[lot49]

"She looked like Mrs. Roper gone pirate."

Bwah! Oh snaf, I just woke up my dog laughing at that. hee.

[snafooey]

Heh - that Chanel one was my first introduction to the show (I ended up watching them all later on DVD, though they don't hold up all that well. . .but that's a whole other thread). Just before that scene, my friend was complaining about her character's ridiculous sartorial choices and I was all, "Oh, come on - they're not that bad" and then she came out in that godawful ensemble, only exacerbated by the tacky logo. She looked like Mrs. Roper gone pirate.

ETA: See, I think that last one is just fabulously awful (mostly b/c of the hotpants and the cap - the top and shoes and coat would be fine on their own). It's just so ridiculously over the top. On the one hand, you could argue that she doesn't bother to tone down an extreme runway style for every day life. On the other hand, her character was far too self-aware (no, really) not to realize that absolutely no one else (in her social milieu anyway) ever dresses like her. . .and at the same time, she was never a total exhibitionist either.

[pepper]

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

oh gawd. thank goodness i didn't watch that show. ugh, my eyes already. atrocious.

[lot49]

ugh, remember the outfit she wore to Paris? That black and white horizontal stripe number with the huge fabric flower down the front? *vomit*. Though this was probably the worst ever. Oh, and this and this -- my eyes!

sorry, nothing else to contribute...I guess I miss making fun of SJP's SATC wardrobe.

[snafooey]

Re: Sex in the City, did the local slaves to the fashion ever try to rock tutus, though? And I don't mean the ironic hipster types - I mean the people who were supposed to be of the same social status as someone like Carrie (even if she most likely didn't earn enough money to support her lifestyle).

That was kind of my point - she was supposed to look like she was combining whatever was currently being trotted out by Vogue and combining it with her own "insouciant" style. I'm not saying she didn't look ridiculous half of the time, but the idea wasn't supposed to be that she was a slave to fashion so much as that she made her own rules no matter how stupid she looked.

Between the visible bra (including that episode where she was wearing a hot pink one underneath a see-through shirt), the gaudy Carrie necklace, the tutu, and the gnarly, stubbornly manicure-free hands, were we ever supposed to believe that she was conceived as elegant chic?

[bklynhermit]

i'll take seductive gopis for $800, Alex.

was there a blue dude with a flute in this hanging, and maybe some cows? a river?

i'd bet you anything it's from a krishna-seducing-hottie-milkmaids scene. there's a great piece in the Metropolitan Museum (a painting, i think) of Krishna having tricked the gopis into taking of their clothes and getting into the river. in a classic 12 year old boy move he then steals their clothes and traps them there.

it's right up there with Susanna and the Elders as a classic excuse to hang a picture of naked chicks on the walls of your palace.

[pepper]

out for dinner with mom and pop when we noticed this treasure behind us:
ultimate CoF?
no, wait, it's both of them.
is this a fashion statement that i missed out on or something? very strange.

[mouse]

maimy, i'm assuming your "do tell" is directed at me. all i will say is that there are ways of dressing "young" without looking like you are in fifth grade. fifth grade girls are not known for their fashion sense.

[bklynhermit]

one of my #1 rules of fashion: if the vertical stripes on your clothes are actually curves, the answer is no.