When I was a young girl, my fear of getting old drove me crazy. Looking back at how middle-aged women were portrayed on TV at the time, it’s easy to understand why.
The Golden Girls was the only U.S. show to feature older women in lead roles. It is a comedy about divorcees and widows with long hair who live together in an asexual home.
To me, turning 50 was like a death sentence.
True blue: Sarah Jessica Parker wearing an elegant coat-dress featuring a tulip-hem and mock-croc bag
This is what fiftysomething looks like: In wildly romantic and escapist Dolce & Gabbana
Here come the girls: Miranda in sharp tailoring, Carrie in £700 Celine heels and Charlotte in classic monochrome
Oh, the times have changed. ‘Older’ women are no longer gently going into that good night. Sarah Jessica Parker, in her glorious ballgown-clad glory, is the full Technicolor, televised evidence.
As the 56-year-old stuns on the cover of Vogue ahead of next month’s much-anticipated Sex And The City revival series, And Just Like That, SJP isn’t just ageing gracefully — she’s ageing proudly.
‘There’s so much misogynist chatter in response to us that would Never. Happen. About. A. Man,’ she says, describing the reaction after the show was first announced.
‘She has too many wrinkles, she doesn’t have enough wrinkles. It almost feels as if people don’t want us to be OK with where we are.
Corsage back! A midi-length paired with the iconic Blue Satin Manolos, which were worn in the premiere episode of series 1, is a fashionable addition to the collection.
At home on the range: A winning pink prairie shirt dress by Carolina Herrera (£392) and £500 Manolo Blahnik pumps
‘I know what I look like. It is my only choice. It is my only option. Stop ageing? Disappear?’
Carrie and her staff are not going away. Instead, they are giving us a much-needed portrayal of fabulous, feisty 50-plus women who wouldn’t be seen dead in sensible lace-ups and a home-knitted woolie.
And how lucky today’s 20 and 30-somethings are to have something positive as their reference point for middle age.
It’s too easy to dismiss SATC as fluffy nonsense about heels and handbags. Yet with women’s rights being eroded around the globe, the new series could not come at a more prescient time.
When it first aired in 1999, SATC liberated a generation, featuring women who didn’t need a man to rescue them or buy them nice things and put female friendship first.
Pile it on: In Claude Montana jumpsuit (£500) and Dries van Noten jacket (£800), Carrie sports pattern, coat-tails and chainmail
Mauve-y magic: Carrie in vintage coat with nano Fendi baguette, £708, and Miranda in Celine skirt and Issey Miyake trench coat
It’s a wrap: Sexy in a ruched ‘Diana’ dress by Norma Kamali (£230)
We need it today more than ever.
This is a revolutionary series in which the heroines are hurling happy and unapologetically towards 60.
It is a remarkable sight to see Sarah Jessica Parker, with her clean-lined face and unashamedly enjoying fashion that is greater than ever.
This new series should remove fear of old age (surely, the last thing that binds us all in West). From a new generation.
Life isn’t over once we hit 60 — in fact, we become more powerful, more single-minded, more determined to grab life by the horns because we have nothing to lose.
It doesn’t matter if a man is giving us a baby, a house, or status. We still feel 21-years old inside.
The impact of SATC’s first appearance on our screens cannot be overemphasized.
As a fashion editor of 30 years, I attended the Milan catwalk shows wearing a minimalist black trouser suit with oversized black bags.
I turned a corner to find a long, over-excited queue of young women outside Fendi — formerly, a fusty fashion house no one cared much about.
Are you serious? Dungarees, in your 50s? Let’s hope she doesn’t break a hip in those shoes!
It’s too much material for a girl! She could be Madonna at a fancy dress bash in Falguni Shane Peacock ‘Lekha’ lehenga set
The baguette was a small bag that each woman desired. Or the croissant which is a smaller bag. My bag was orange, with tiger stripes in sequins.
This accessory was what gave us the most memorable lines in six of the original seasons. When Carrie is mugged at gunpoint, told to hand over her bag, she tells the hoodlum briskly that it is, in fact, ‘a baguette’.
These details are even more valuable than the life you live.
This show was an education. We became literate in formerly niche labels — Manolo Blahnik was catapulted into the stratosphere, while John Galliano became a household name when Carrie emerged in his monochrome ‘newspaper’ dress.
The details of cocktail ingredients and sexual roles were discussed.
Although Carrie, Samantha and Miranda may look like squealing fools standing on their heels, Miranda, Charlotte, Miranda, Miranda, and Carrie all had steel cores.
Their men were mere foils, with not a scintilla of the girls’ wit or joie de vivre.
Although the program was not directly responsible for global warming I think it helped pave the way to fast and disposable fashion. Shopping was no longer a joy, it became a disease.
It was a big mistake to be in Paris with her husband. But is this Oscar de la Renta dress too bloomin’ much?
Gingham (Batsheva), high heels, marigolds, bad hair days? It must be nightmare scene
Ridiculous business. But, the Gaultier shoulder pads are far too 1980s.
When I was in LA to see the Oscars, Barneys flew the Swarovski silver Manolos from New York. I had Carrie’s Apple laptop.
As a dating columnist, I was her boss. I was damned if I wasn’t going to own her shoes, too.
So it would be an underestimate to say I’m excited about the reboot, which will air on Sky.
Photos show that Carrie’s clothes are more theatrical than ever. In charge of the wardrobe are Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago, protégés of the legendary Patricia Field, who masterminded the wardrobe for all six SATC seasons and subsequent two films.
They have injected some new labels that weren’t even born last time around, such as eco-brand Gabriela Hearst.
Yet there is a joyous nod to the original, with Carrie re-wearing old favourites, such as her blue Manolos — as familiar to me as my own face.
Of course, she also has that purple baguette.
It makes me wonder, though, what Generation Z and Millennials (unable to buy designer goods or even climb the property ladder) will think of all this.
They will remember the older women who blazed trails, and not only for their combats in stilettos or multi-crossbody bags but also for our friendship.
For being there for each other through thick and, in Carrie’s case, very thin indeed.