Sarah Jessica Parker stars in the "Sex and the City" reboot, "And Just Like That," on HBO Max.- The show's costume designers said Parker helped create a memorable look that went viral in October.
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Long before the "Sex and the City" reboot "And Just Like That..." began airing on HBO Max in December, fans were shocked and amused by paparazzi photos of Parker wearing a particularly out-there outfit on set.
It includes a pair of fluorescent purple washing-up gloves, a pink gingham nightgown from New York-based brand Batsheva, undone Mary Jane shoes, and a navy zip-up hoodie — certainly not the kind of chic look we're used to seeing on Carrie Bradshaw. The look was topped off with what Vogue described as a "babushka-style headscarf," a pair of glittery sunglasses, and Carrie's on-and-off favorite accessory, a lit cigarette.
The outfit finally appeared in episode eight, which came out on January 20. We now know that Carrie wears rubber gloves and a headscarf so she doesn't smell like cigarette smoke after her one-a-day cigarette walk around the block, admitting that she's "sure she looks insane."
The show's costume designers said Parker was a huge part of creating the now-iconic look
When Insider spoke with co-costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago ahead of the series' release, they were tight-lipped about the context behind the look, though they said the outfit was heavily inspired by what was happening in the series at that moment.
"When you take things out of context and you see an actor walking down a street, you don't really know what's happening," Rogers told Insider. Speaking of the pink gingham outfit, Rogers said it was a "good example" of fashion as a storytelling device.
"It was the one time I really read the comments because the audience and the fans seemed to really want Danny and I's heads on stakes. They were so mortified that we would actually put that outfit together," Rogers said.
"We got a lot of Edie Beale comparisons," Santiago told Insider, referring to the eccentric socialite Edith Bouvier Beale, who is known for her participation in the 1975 documentary film "Grey Gardens."
However, Rogers explained that Parker actually had a "large hand" in the look.
"She was a real laser beam about it," Rogers told Insider. "I think that's all I should say."
Photos of the outfit went viral while 'And Just Like That ...' filmed in October
Some fans were so taken aback by the look that it garnered almost 80,000 likes on the "Sex and the City" fan page Every Outfit on Sex & the City. It also inspired a number of Halloween costumes.
"This time, it was a completely different world with all of the social media attention, scene by scene," Rogers said. "We tried really hard to stay in our creative bubble and not let anything penetrate us. We wanted to be free and happy and liking what we were creating, styling, finding, and discovering. We wanted to keep all that influence away — it kept it purer."
Santiago added, "We stuck to what the brand was and the evolution of who [the characters] are now. We really didn't pay any attention to what people had to say."
Insider asked Rogers and Santiago whether they would continue reading social media comments after the series came out.
"I'm so excited for people to finally watch it," Rogers said, while Santiago agreed that once "people can see the story, it will start to make a lot more sense to them."
"I'm excited to see if they still want to kill us," Rogers joked.