Movie Dress in Sex and The City

The conventional role of costuming in film and television is to “complement the narrative, characters and stars.”On Sex and the City we know that Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) is whimsical because she pairs hot pants with a newsboy cap and Fendi mules and that Samantha (Kim Cattrall) is sexually adventurous because she prefers bold colors and low cut dresses. Costuming is designated as being “spectacular’” if it “interrupt(s) and destabilize(s) character and the unfolding action, offering an alternative and potentially contrapuntal discursive strategy—a vertical interjection into a horizontal and linear narrative.”

At these moments what characters are wearing becomes more important than what they are saying and doing. In such cases, costuming often takes on an extradiegetic role by encouraging fans to go out and purchase what they’ve seen characters wearing; Carrie Bradshaw’s shoe obsessions convinced many female viewers to procure their own pair of $630 Manolo Blahnik pumps while the clothing worn by Gossip Girl’s young cast can be purchased directly through the CW website.3 Of course, this use of fictional characters as “living display windows” is nothing new; since the earliest days of moving pictures the screen has functioned as a department store window, whetting and motivating the viewer’s consumer desires.

A relatively new tourist destination, Dubai was gaining popularity in recent years until the global economic crash of 2009. Dubai is essentially a desert city with superb infrastructure, liberal policies (by regional standards), that became popular for its excellent tourist amenities. Just 5 h from Europe and 3 h from most parts of the Middle East, the Near East, and the subcontinent of India, Dubai makes a great short break for shopping, partying, sunbathing, fine dining, sporting events, and even a few sinful pleasures. It is a city of superlatives: for the fastest, biggest, tallest, largest and highest, Dubai is the destination. It has the largest immigrant population in the world.

Occasionally The City’s spectacularization of fashion does serve an explicit narrative purpose by moving the plot forward or developing character motivations. For example, one of the series’ major storylines involves socialite Olivia Palermo’s tenure at Elle magazine as Accessories Editor and her clashes with Erin Kaplan, Elle’s Director of Public Relations. Erin believes Olivia is ill equipped to handle her new position, but Creative Director, Joe Zee, firmly believes that Olivia belongs at Elle (no doubt due to the free publicity generated by The City’s ever present cameras). Joe cites “[her] taste,  eye, herpassion for fashion” as key components of Olivia’s value to the magazine. In order to support these claims, Joe frequently draws attention to Olivia’s costuming. When Olivia dons a bright yellow tunic at a staff meeting, Joe remarks, “I love that color!” And in a later episode he notes Olivia’s high heels and the camera responds by cutting to a close up of Olivia’s feet.
 

Whitney’s booties are more fascinating than her face.

While the conspicuous display of contemporary fashion and the placement of the stylish female body in exciting locales are fundamental to the appeal of many programs featuring single and/or career-driven women living in urban environments (Sex and the City, Gossip Girl, Ally McBeal, Melrose Place, Lipstick Jungle), The City’s use of spectacular costuming is employed to provide its audience with pleasures that exceed or defy the boundaries of its otherwise flimsy narrative. Indeed, because The City’s narrative has been rendered superfluous through the proliferation of multi-platform content venues (tabloid weeklies, fashion blogs, internet gossip sites) that inform viewers of crucial plot details months or weeks ahead of an episode’s air date, viewers are instead offered a living, breathing fashion editorial.