24 Years Ago, Miranda Wore Her Most Queer-Coded 'SATC' Outfit

Unlike her peacocking friends, Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) was often overlooked when it came to style. It’s a pity, because she had some stellar style moments of her own throughout the SATC series. The lawyer’s suiting game, for example, was unparalleled. But one outfit is particularly famous among fans, noted as one of her best off-duty looks.

In Season 2, Episode 1, while Carrie was dealing with the aftermath of her latest breakup with Big, Miranda bumped into an ex-boyfriend of her own. During the interaction, Miranda wore a monochromatic ‘fit that was both authentically ‘90s and perfectly laid-back.

The base items — baggy denim overalls over a crew neck tee in a deep shade of blue — were on-trend for the decade (the season came out in 1999). But it was the way she merchandised the look that gave it a modern vibe: with a baseball cap, white sneakers, and a puffer coat. When she debuted the casual-cool ensemble, it instantly became one of Miranda’s most iconic looks.

Style-wise, she had much more masculine taste, when compared to her ultra-feminine, colorful counterparts. While Miranda typically favored androgynous dressing, this outfit was easily one of her most queer-coded.

In the original series, Miranda was presented as straight, dating men throughout the show. And though that in no way takes away from ones queerness IRL, it’s evident that Miranda was initially written as a straight woman.

In an early episode of SATC, she was even set up on a blind date with a woman, which Miranda protested, saying “I’m not gay!” Later in that episode, she pretended to be in a queer relationship to get in her boss’ good graces, but couldn’t go through with the ruse. After kissing her fake girlfriend, Miranda declared that she was “definitely straight.”

Even Cynthia Nixon, who plays Miranda in both the original and reboot, acknowledged that she was queer-coded. In an interview with Variety last year, Nixon said, “Even though she was only really interested in men, I think that Miranda had many other queer and frankly, lesbianic qualities about her. And I think for a lot of gay women, she — we didn’t have a gay woman [on the show]! But she was a stand-in for the gay women we didn’t have.”

It’s not until the HBO Max reboot, And Just Like That..., that Miranda’s character is given a queer awakening. Though, many believe this story arc is an attempt to make up for the problematic parts of the original series that didn’t age well — particularly, the harmful and incorrect LGBTQ+ stereotypes.

Though these days, Miranda is totally obsessed with her (polarizing) partner Che Diaz and wearing whatever the hell she wants, this look from decades past will forever be iconic.