And Just Like That’s Costume Designers Left Outfit Easter Eggs For Fans

Spoilers ahead for And Just Like That... Episodes 1 & 2.

Over six seasons and two SATC movies, Carrie Bradshaw established herself as TV’s most stylish character. Almost two decades after the original show wrapped, Carrie’s outfits are still setting social media ablaze.

And Just Like That... costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago are the brains behind the HBO reboot’s headline-making looks. And they’re catering to keen-eyed fans, leaving sartorial Easter eggs as often as they can. Carrie’s wedding dress revival has already made headlines, but according to them, there are even more nods to come.

“In [Carrie’s] closet, we try to play around and add a little Easter egg,” Santiago tells Bustle. “If she’s walking through, we know fans are going to see something. Even if it’s just a corner of a sleeve or a skirt hemline, they know exactly what piece that is.”

While some of Carrie’s accessorizing harkens back to her olden days (read: her Fendi Baguette ankle bag), the designers reveal that Sarah Jessica Parker’s on-screen style is still evolving. “Something SJ was doing [since] Season 1 that I don’t feel anybody caught, is she was taking these beautiful jeweled clip-on earrings and mismatching them, or wearing one of them really high up on her earlobe,” Rogers reveals, noting that Season 2 will see more of that styling. “It’s just a small little thing, but it looks so interesting.”

Below, Rogers and Santiago talk Carrie’s revived wedding dress, Parker’s swoon-worthy SATC fashion archives, and Miranda’s style evolution.

In the first episode, Carrie rewears her famous wedding dress to the Met Gala. How did that come about?

Molly: It was very premeditated in the script. [Michael Patrick King] wanted to shoot the Met Gala for many years. So when an episode presented itself, he and Sarah Jessica had many conversations about the theme, “Veiled Beauty.” He wrote that catastrophe in the episode so she would have to reach for her old wedding gown, which I thought was a really great plot point and character point — that she was able to turn that unfortunate incident at the library around into something that she knew she had moved past and was healing.

We had to find the bird [headpiece] and make sure it was still alive and functioning because it’s very, very fragile and we had to make a call to Vivienne Westwood to make sure the gown was still together and would fit her. Danny came up with this wonderful idea to have Smoke [Bethlehem Million] make a cape, and it was such a beautiful color and it really went with the bird.

Danny: We knew we had [the wedding dress] to deal with, but we didn’t know what was going to be the [Met Gala] dress that didn’t make it. That was our challenge. What was that going to be and how could Carrie take something from that look and integrate it? That’s when we came up with the idea of adding the cape and the gloves — pulling the colors from the bird to really give that wedding gown a whole new vibe.

Carrie often had a signature accessory in each season of the original series. Could you speak to her choices this season?

Danny: For Carrie, we did layer a lot more bolder necklaces this season. That was something we were gravitating towards and something that Sarah Jessica really liked the idea of: wearing it in a layered way, almost askew. Sometimes they’re twisted up into themselves. Sometimes they’re a little asymmetrical or they’re tucked inside of a neckline. We had a lot of fun playing with that. That was something we threaded through the entire season.

Molly: Something really important that SJ was doing [since] Season 1 that I don’t feel like anybody caught, is she was taking these beautiful jeweled clip-on earrings and mismatching them, or wearing one of them really high up on her earlobe. She mismatched them and wore one really, really high, and it’s just a small little thing, but it looks so interesting. She continued to mismatch these earrings in Season 2.

That pigeon purse felt like a mark of Carrie’s character growth from when she disliked the swan Judith Leiber purse from the original.

Molly: You change your mind as you grow, depending on what your life is and the changes you’re going through. For example, Danny and I made sure that when she’s trying on all these shoes that she [bought] on the shopping therapy, we made sure there was a shoe in there that was not a ‘Carrie shoe.’ She might try it. It might be a shoe that a salesperson pushed on her and she just took it and threw it in the bag. You know what I mean?

I wanted to talk about Miranda’s story arc, as well. How have you communicated her evolution through style?

Molly: You’re always growing, you’re always looking, you’re always [trying] to figure things out. I think that was really reflected in her clothes, because it's a little all over the place. She goes out on a date with this lesbian, she’s in some sexy dress. She goes to LA, she puts on a cowboy boot. She’s doing it when she’s getting dressed, too. She’s just looking to feel like herself.

Did any of Sarah Jessica Parker’s personal wardrobe make it into the show?

Danny: Personal, no, but archival, yes. She has an incredible collection that she’s collected over the years from the original series. She was smart to think that possibly someday people would want to see these pieces again. All the favorites: the Roger Belt, some of the dresses, some of the handbags, the Fendi Baguette. She has quite an amazing archive of things that she saved and we’ve had access to pull from.

Last year we did a lot of little Easter eggs — whether it being in the closet or something that she would re-wear again. This year we did more accessories than we did clothing. There are a few things in there. One of the pairs of shoes are those Dior Gladiator shoes, she wears those in the new season a couple of times. A couple of handbags that make [an] appearance again.

What did SJP keep from the new AJLT season?

Molly: She keeps all of it. If it’s loaned, it goes back. Although, of course, JW Anderson said, “Keep the pigeon, you deserve it.” She takes everything, as Kristen [Davis] does, and Cynthia [Nixon] does. They take a lot of their closet.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.