 Sioban Feliciano helps Lauren Moretti try on Christian Louboutin shoes at CoCo Pari in Red Bank, N.J. The shop didn't stock shoes until customers asked for styles seen on the TV hit 'Sex and the City.' (Photo by Mark Dye) |
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Posted on 05/30/2008 10:17:52 AM PDT by Incorrigible
By VICKI HYMAN
Sioban Feliciano helps Lauren Moretti try on Christian Louboutin shoes at CoCo Pari in Red Bank, N.J. The shop didn't stock shoes until customers asked for styles seen on the TV hit 'Sex and the City.' (Photo by Mark Dye) |
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Red Bank, NJ -- Late in the big-screen version of "Sex and the City," the gang is enjoying a round of fruity pink Cosmopolitans, prompting one of them to wonder, "Why did we stop drinking these?" Retorts Carrie: "Because everyone else started."
From the cocktail craze to catch phrases ("frenemies," "modelizer") to relationship philosophies ("He's just not that into you"), "Sex and the City" has had, for better or worse, an outsized impact on pop culture. The show's talent for launching a fashion trend is still unrivaled, and the movie, redolent of Dior, LaCroix and, of course Manolo, may spawn more — expect a run on studded leather belts, and should the missus come to bed pairing pajamas with Grandma's pearls, you now know why.
But "Sex and the City" did more than turn niche luxury brands into household names — it normalized the pursuit of luxury for many women.
"Sometimes they need permission — implied permission — to go out and splurge and buy," said luxury marketing expert Pam Danziger. "Something like 'Sex and the City' sort of gave them the justification, the permission to go out and buy these designer brands."
Sharon Zukin, a Brooklyn College sociology professor and the author of "Point of Purchase," a book about shopping and America, is a bit more blunt: "Everybody who has ever seen 'Sex and the City' thinks of it just as a giant conscience salve for shopping."
The show, and even more so the movie, does often read like a Neiman Marcus catalog penned by Noel Coward. (HBO's "Sex and the City" Web site helpfully credits each and every outfit: "Carrie — Ext. Chinatown Street (19): Top: Chanel silk chiffon pleated sleeveless; Skirt: White Prada cotton pleated; Shoe: Bronze Louboutin mule; Bag: Deep purple Valentino feather.")
Sure, there was the episode where a rich pal refused to reimburse Carrie after our heroine's $485 Manolo Blahniks disappeared during a party ("She shoe-shamed me!"). And Carrie's splurges caught up with her when she couldn't afford the down payment on her Upper East Side apartment because she'd spent $40,000 on shoes. (Advises an unsympathetic rental agent: Consider Weehawken.)
The only thing more credulity-straining than Carrie's ability to afford the four-figure frocks and designer shoes on her writer's salary is her ability to fit into them, given little evidence of exercise (and no, shopping doesn't count).
At the height of the show's popularity, Joanne Chiu was a working college student, so, she said, "it was only in dreamy-land that I was making big purchases like that." Now a beauty industry executive, she will occasionally splurge, and she admits the girls are in the back of her mind. "Four hundred dollars is a lot to spend on shoes in any situation — but if I love it, then it's worth it."
You'll find Jimmy Choo, Christian Louboutin, and handmade, Swarovski-studded Rene Caovilla stilettos that start at $895 at CoCo Pari, a high-end boutique in Red Bank, N.J., that opened in 1998, the same year Carrie & Co. had its debut. But owner Kimberly Landau said she didn't start selling shoes until customers came in asking about pairs they'd seen on the show.
The ultra-wealthy, she said, are a small part of her clientele. "Our customers are people who do make sacrifices to make a purchase like that," she said. "Even women who don't have money to buy a wardrobe and they can't believe a dress is $1,200, that same person will buy that one shoe that they fall in love with."
"Sex and the City" can't take all the credit for the rush to consume luxury goods, which accounted for approximately $321.9 billion in consumer spending last year. There's always been status bags, from the monogrammed Louis Vuitton luggage, which dates to the 19th century, to the Hermes Kelly bags, popularized by Princess Grace in the 1950s, but luxury designers really started to expand their brands in the booming late '90s, and some, like Marc Jacobs, found huge success for his handbags and other accessories.
"It gives people a lot more accessibility," said Katie Christopher, a saleswoman at the boutique Zoe, which offers Prada, Stella McCartney and Marni designs. "They could afford a pair of shoes or a big bracelet, that's their way of feeling like they can wear that brand, even if they couldn't wear one of the dresses."
Whether the movie will spur marathon sprees in this economic climate is unclear.
Landau is hopeful: "It's almost like when you're on a diet and you don't eat anything for so long, and when you go off it, you eat for like a week straight," she said. "When they see a movie like that again, they realize how they've been depriving themselves."
But Zukin likened the film to those Depression-era comedies featuring heiresses falling for their butlers. "'Sex and the City' might be just that kind of fantasy comedy that Americans go to see when they can't even afford those things in the movies. As escape entertainment rather than aspirational entertainment, the movie will be really popular."
(Vicki Hyman is a staff writer for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. She can be contacted at vhyman(at)starledger.com.)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
And we are supposed to believe there is a recession going on?!!! If you can blow $450 on a pair of shoes that don’t look any better than a pair on sale at Shoe Carnival for $19.99, then you need to quit whining about the price of gas...
I think it is a conscience salve for sex
The only reason I am going to a Sex in The City Viewing party tonight is because it will be filled with single women, all imbibing heavily on Cosmos.
I didn’t watch it the first time because I didn’t get HBO, but a lot of my friends did. When it hit syndication I started watching it and really liked it. Never made me want to buy a thing, though. In fact, I had the opposite reaction - these are beautiful, competent, funny women - why do they need to slap on a $500 pair of shoes or carry a $1000 handbag to feel good about themselves? My favorite episode is the one where Carrie gets the big advance on her book and buys her boyfriend a $500 Prada shirt, and he ends up leaving her at a theater premier because he realizes that he doesn’t care enough about money and labels to make her happy.
I wouldn't be caught dead with an Hermes Kelly bag, even though they are now being resurructed in fuschia and crocodile:
That's not necessarily true - I say no to mine quite often. Of course, I usually preface it with "OK, I'll get the [insert item here]; you cover the rent, the insurance, gas, electric, food, cable, and all the other niceties that you enjoy from day to day..." Her eyes are bigger than my wallet at times.
And about the supposed gay aspect that some have brought up, the series is about four women and their relationships, so apparently they haven't seen it either. In the six years it was on, there was only one "experimentation" as a lesbian by one of the characters (with absolutely none of the graphic sex scenes they normally have for hetero relationships), it was short-lived...IIRC, two half hour segments...and ended with that character realizing that wasn't the lifestyle for her.
There are two gay guys, Anthony (10 episodes only) and Stanford (28 episodes), that are the girl's friends, but they don't play a major role. They are not even a couple...they actually can't stand each other...and their individual sex lives are NEVER discussed nor displayed as the hetero relationships are. In fact, they are so stereotyped, they are hilarious to watch.
As far as it being "garbage", someone else besides me must have liked it...
Over its course of six seasons, "Sex and the City" was nominated for over 50 Emmy Awards, winning seven times. Among the Emmys the show won were two for Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series (Jennifer McNamara), one for its Costumes, a trophy for Outstanding Comedy Series for its third season in 2001, Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series in 2002 for the episode "The Real Me", and for its final season in 2004, Emmys for Sarah Jessica Parker (Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the episode "An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux"), and Cynthia Nixon (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the episodes "One" and "Ick Factor"). It has also been nominated for 24 Golden Globe Awards, and won 8. Its wins included Best TV Series — Musical or Comedy, and Best Actress in a TV Series — Musical or Comedy, (Sarah Jessica Parker) for three consecutive years from 2000 – 2002, Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series, or Movie for Kim Cattrall, and another one for Parker.
It’s hard to deny my wife her wish to buy the occasional nice pair of shoes after what I’ve spent on firearms and cigars.
I know multiple relationships what were destroyed by that show. It greatly influenced behavior in some of the women who got addicted to it. I saw it first hand.
From the “cosmos” girls nights out where they started pushing the limits on what was considered “cheating” on their bf or husbands to leaving faithful good men because the felt they were entitled to the Carrie Bradshaw lifestyle to dumping a bunch of debt from their shopping sprees on their men right before leaving them.
The true joke of it all was that, in real life, the actress who played Carrie Bradshaw was married and having children.
While in the end, its just a tv show, and any sane person should be able to realize the difference between tv and the real world, that show really did influence womens behavior in very strong ways.
Even Marge Simpson has recognised the secret to Sex and the City. "That's the show about four women acting like gay guys," she said in a recent episode of The Simpsons. She's always been a thinker, that Marge.
Entering its sixth season, Sex and the City has been analysed from every perspective. It has sparked debate, for example, about the sexual freedom of Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and the lusty Samantha. Its frank language, catalogue of comical sexual perversions and emphasis on male romantic ineptitude have also attracted attention.
But much of the interest has focused on what Sex and the City says about single women, even four of the most upscale designer-label-and-new-restaurant-hungry females ever to appear in a television comedy.
Author Camille Paglia recently said the series was a victory for "the huge wing of us pro-sex feminists" over the "1980s anti-porn, anti-sex wing of feminists". Some see Carrie, the New York columnist, as a feminist icon for her candid struggles with uncaring, uncommitted males. Others see Samantha as the real statement about women enjoying sex as much as men once they detach from emotion.
But let's go back a few steps.
SATC creator Darren Star.
Dipping into the series over the years, I was always reminded of an old American theory about writing comedy - you write black and cast white. In other words, you add style and cool to your white characters by writing as though they were black. A variation is writing Jewish and casting gentile to add personality and humour.
For Sex and the City, it seemed the formula was to write gay male and cast straight female. Its (gay) creator, Darren Star (pictured), devised one of the gayest hit series featuring straight characters in television history. The lives of the glamorous central characters - and apologies here to gay readers who dislike the stereotyping as much as anyone - revolve around sex, shopping, gossip and bawdy humour. As City Journal has noted, the show is a Yellow Pages of Manhattan's status fashion objects, including Prada skirts, DKNY jeans and shoes by Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo. "The heroines lust after these pricey and au courant accoutrements of success ... They size up men with a similarly calculating eye for surfaces."
This hardly changed, even when Miranda had a baby.
While Sex in the City has thrived on sharp, witty writing and its clever dealings with the struggle for love, it's part of a subtle shift on US television. As The New York Times noted two years ago, openly gay writers and producers have been transforming TV comedy since Ellen came out in the late 1990s. The result has been hit sitcoms such as Will & Grace and "lots of nudging and winking" in shows focusing on heterosexual characters.
Even in less accepting times, many saw old shows such as The Odd Couple, Cagney and Lacey and The Golden Girls as having a gay sensibility, even though the central characters were heterosexual.
And what about Frasier? One gay spokesman, as quoted in The New York Times, saw it as a show about "two stereotypical gay men, except they sleep with women".
Wonder what Marge thinks about that?
You base your opinion on the Simpsons and one unknown fool’s assumptions that it “seemed the formula was to write gay male and cast straight female”? Wow...and here I thought Freepers had more depth than to believe everything they read without doing the research...maybe like actually watching it? That’s fine if the series it is not your cup of tea, just don’t throw crap like this against the wall and expect it to stick.
As far as it being “garbage”, someone else besides me must have liked it...
&&&
Oh, okay, I surrender. Your description of the the sluts and their behavior has me swooning to watch it. And, of course, learning of its popularity really makes me understand now that it is right up there with other great works of literature such as “General Hospital” and “The Bachelor”.
No, no, no.
It's not that the women are lesbians.
The women, their values, their behaviors, their crises, are the values, behaviors, and crises of gay men.
There are no real women like these ladies. This is a story about the lives of gay men, presented in the only way it could go mainstream - by casting females to play the roles.
Hmm. Never thought of it that way, but it makes sense. Actually, I’ve never spent any time thinking about any aspect of that show, except for wondering who watched it.
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