Carrie and the 80s

As some of you may know, a new 'Sex and the City ' series is in production. 'The Carrie diaries' traces the young Carrie's life in New York prior to the writing, Big, and the manolos. Or not really.

I belong to a generation of women who loved Sex and the City. I remember spending a significant number of my grade 12 Chemistry lessons discussing the latest episode of the show. It was and is a great show, no matter what its many detractors think of it. Sure, it might have given me some unrealistic ideas about fashion and New York city but that was made up for by a little realistic relationship representation on screen.

Ironically, the fashion that helped make the series famous and fabulous was also its downfall. There is no way Carrie could have afforded her wardrobe, not on her salary – even post-Vogue. I remember reading in a mag the financial breakdown of Carrie's wardrobe and this outfit alone cost in the ten of thousands of dollars:

on 2 columns? I don't think so. (Love the outfit though)

Which brings me to my first of many beefs about 'The Carrie Diaries'. First off, stop flogging the dead horse. The first movie was pretty terrible, the second was dismal. Now another series? Just let the poor franchise rest. Anyway, main beef: the first snaps have emerged of the young Carrie strutting around New York and it strikes me that high school Carrie, or high-school Carrie's Mum could never have afforded this outfit:

There was never any suggestion that Carrie came from a well-to-do family. I always believed her to be totally average in that sense, maybe even worse off than others because her father ran off when she was young and there were surely few single mothers in the 1980s who could afford a whole lot of excess.

I'd wear this now, for heaven's sake. NOT 80s enough.

I know that SATC is famous for the fashion and 'Carrie Bradshaw' has a reputation to create, but I would have loved to see a genuinely inventive wardrobe on her, not an attempt at adult-Carrie-but-20-years-younger. In the first season, she didn't even display a quirky dress sense. What happened to scouring TV wardrobes and the amazing NYC vintage scene for genuine 80's pieces? What about a bit of fashion originality from the young Carrie? I can see her experimenting with DIY, denim and neon. The 80s were classy for no one, but they were loud and crazy. I want to see stone-wash-denim Carrie and scrunch-socks Carrie. You know she would have gone there.

I won't even get started on the other inaccuracies in the series, I will only say that 'The Carrie Diaries' in still in the early stages of production in the US. It has a SATC writer and is being produced by a couple of Gossip Girl producers, so even though I'm a little annoyed at it I'm sure it's going to be good mindless, pretty television.

If you want to read a more bitter take on adult Carrie's wardrobe, read this.