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Getting Carrie'd away by fashion

'Sex and the City' fans preen for their upcoming clothes encounter

BY JOSEPH V. AMODIO | Special to Newsday

May 22, 2008

Conversation overheard last week between two female commuters:

"I'm so excited, we're going to see 'Sex and the City' - you should come," says the first.

"When does it open?" asks the other.

"May 30th."

"May 30th???!! The way everybody's going on about it I thought it was just about to open. Do you think it's any good?"

"Oh, no - not as good as the TV show."

"I guess I'll go. I just want to go to see all those clothes on a big screen."

For anyone not packing a Y chromosome - and even for some who are - "SATC" is the most hotly anticipated film of the summer season. The big-screen follow-up to the HBO series boasts the show's big draws: Sarah Jessica Parker and Co.; clever, candid, at-a-clip banter; the loving depiction of New York (the Central Park reservoir, Chinatown and the public library get cameos). But the mortar holding all these charming bricks together, the thing that mesmerized TV audiences from 1998 to 2004 - and that keeps the chopped-up, dubbed-clean, late-night, edited reruns at least somewhat watchable - is quite simply:

Clothes, clothes, clothes.

Not since "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has a film, and its fans, been so associated with a "look." Fans identify by category - are you a Carrie (quirky chic), a Charlotte (traditional), a Miranda (businesslike) or Samantha (red hot)? Fashion is such an integral part of the "SATC" brand that the mere act of seeing the film is becoming a fashion event.

"I'm already planning my outfit," says Genevieve Ascencio (a Carrie, she admits), who's seeing the film opening night in Brooklyn. Ascencio, a Floral Park native and publicist at the Manhattan firm Factory, decided there's no reason those "Star Wars" fanatics should have all the fun. She knows lots of others, she says, who'll be styled for the multiplex. Her outfit? A Club Monaco parachute skirt, 3.1 Phillip Lim tank, Donna Karan vintage belt - and Manolo Blahnik stilettos, natch. "They're fierce and oddly comfortable," she says.

Carrie, no doubt, would approve.

Not exactly affordable duds

The Manolo-jonesing heroine played by Sarah Jessica Parker with romping, romantic appeal (and a wicked, gymnastic brow) became a role model for millions of women, even though most could never afford her designer duds.

"The show became a cultural touchstone because it reminded women every week that clothing could be about more than looking pretty," says Caroline Weber, an associate professor at Barnard University and author of "Queen of Fashion," a biography of Marie Antoinette. "It could be about expressing crazy, creative whims, or making yourself into a completely different character every time you walked into your closet."

The film revives that spirit with a warehouse worth of costumes from top designers. A wedding-gown montage flaunts labels such as Vera Wang, Carolina Herrera, Lanvin, Dior. Christian Lacroix dazzles with scads of pearls, Oscar de la Renta with a spicy red flowered number and Vivienne Westwood with a mountain of sculpted taffeta and satin.

There are Fendi handbags, Robert Marc sunglasses, Fred Leighton bling. And, of course, shoes. Not just the TV series' standbys (Manolos, Jimmy Choos and Christian Louboutin - the latter being on the receiving end of Carrie's famous line, "Hello, lover"). The film spreads the love to brands such as Stuart Weitzman and Dior, whose Extreme gladiator sandals get so much play one expects Russell Crowe to ride in on his chariot.

Unlike other shows' clothes

When the TV series established this love affair with fashion, it was a far cry from shows such as "Friends." Sure, that cast of pretty urbanites sparked the occasional trend (remember Rachel's haircut?), but the wardrobes are ordinary, Weber says.

Some series, such as "Dynasty," have inspired viewers, notes Sally Singer, Vogue's fashion news-features director. "No doubt many women [took] cues from Linda Evans and Joan Collins. But their characters weren't interested in fashion," Singer says.