14 DAY TRIAL // Sarah Jessica Parker is admittedly the most influential trendsetter the fashion world has discovered on television. Her outfits, always successfully combining vintage with ultra modern without even coming close to mainstream, have been the talk of town ever since she first started to be known as Carrie Bradshaw from the HBO series. Now, the actress reveals her style secret in the latest issue of Glamour magazine.
Millions of women have tried at least once to copy one of Sarah or Carrie’s looks but many have also failed for the mere reason that they tried too hard. What makes it so that almost all outfits SJP wears pop up on the catwalk months later is the fact that she’s always focusing on her own personality instead of blindly following trends. She too has the occasional moment when she’s “seduced” by the latest “it” item, the actress admits, but she would never make the mistake of buying and coming out in public with it if she feels it doesn’t suit her look, a faux-pas many women commit.
“I really love beautiful, well-made clothes. I don’t shop [a lot], so I tend to have pieces for a long time. I like mixing vintage with newer designers. […] In the eighties, I was wearing a lot of work boots and oversize men’s dinner jackets and floppy hats with flowers. I was making every mistake that was appropriate for the time. Eighty percent of pictures from that period deserve a cringe, but I don’t because I enjoyed it!” the actress says of her style and how she began developing it.
As for the one guideline she follows today, SJP says she would never go trendy if she had an option. “It’s just simpler; I don’t buy anything trendy. I used to be more easily seduced by some momentary idea of what was fashionable. Now I’m slightly savvier. I still have the same ideas in my head about what looks good on me and what doesn’t. I still will not wear turtlenecks. I feel like I’m having a panic attack in them. I’m so short that the little bit of height I have is taken and consumed by the turtleneck. My son won’t wear them, either!” she explains.
Another secret to the star’s unique and extremely sophisticated style is that she doesn’t buy that many clothes. She chooses quality instead, opting for items that are versatile and, at the same time, fit to stand the test of time, such is the case of a Guy Laroche dress that she’s had for 10 years and has worn of various occasions from funerals to fancy birthday parties.