A Carrie Bradshaw in Rachel's Closet

playing dress-up with my own wardrobe

What would Carrie wear?

As I’ve written about before, should one want to dress more like Carrie Bradshaw¹ one must not attempt to straight-up dress like Carrie. Rather, one should ask oneself “what would Carrie do with my wardrobe?”

Here’s where I will fully acknowledge that Carrie Bradshaw is not a real person and if I wanted to be practical I would ask “how would Patricia Field style the character of Carrie using only what’s available in my wardrobe?” However, I’d rather be whimsical! Because the point is this: no one has Carrie’s closet. Patricia Field doesn’t even have Carrie’s closet, although she comes close. So, if you want to dress like Carrie, you have to try and do what she’d do, with what you’ve got.

Now that I’m on holiday break and I’ve got both time and a husband off work who can act as photographer, I thought I’d give it a real try.

So, what would Carrie wear to brunch with the girls if she was getting dressed in my wardrobe?

Well, first of all, she would definitely consider my harness. Yes, I own a cool leather harness. For fashion purposes. But would she wear this to brunch or would she save it for a downtown bar kind of night?

This situation might seem the easiest of the three I’m building outfits for, but I always found Carrie’s daytime outfits to be the most “Carrie”. Sometimes, and definitely in the later seasons, she dressed for men after dark. But in the daytime she was always dressing for the girls and the gays. The outfit that makes everyone strangely angry — the belt across her bare stomach — was a daytime outfit after all.

Ok. This little project of mine is a lot harder than I expected. I keep dreaming up fantastic Carrie outfits while forgetting she’s supposed to be wearing things that I currently own.

When I opened my wardrobe I was hit with the fact that I generally wear black and other dark, muted colours and patterns, and Carrie, generally, wears brighter, lighter colours and prints. For the first few seconds I started to panic because I’ve been hyping up this post for the last two hot mushrooms editions. And then inspiration struck and I pulled out everything I owned that was bright and colourful (not more than seven pieces total), and dug my highest heels out of the back of my wardrobe.

Then the first two outfits pretty much made themselves…

brunch with the girls

Of course Carrie would choose to wear my harness to brunch with girls! I thought she’d probably pair it with that slightly off-the shoulder button-up. And she’d definitely wear my mom’s vintage cowboy boots (which I believe are older than me) if she could get her feet into the tiny size!

meeting the girls at a downtown bar for cheap margaritas

Of course Carrie would wear this vintage purple suede skirt that I also stole from my mother!

date night with Big

This scenario was absolutely the hardest one to choose an outfit for. I just don’t own many items that anyone, let alone Carrie, would wear to swanky restaurants that someone like Big could afford.

I’ve been in two weddings, including my own, and a guest at one. Those three dresses (maid of honour, wedding dress, and guest) were the only real contenders. In keeping with the vintage and leather theme of the day I thought Carrie would choose the floor-length horse print dress. I added two statement necklaces and borrowed my husband’s suit jacket which is as big on me as Big’s would be on Carrie.

Overall I am quite pleased with the outfits I created and should Patricia Field ever find herself needing to style Carrie using only my wardrobe I think she’d make similar looks.

This was an incredibly fun little challenge and I hope you enjoyed my efforts. As it’s Christmas and you likely have some free time I’d suggest spending a day playing dress-up with your own wardrobe!

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Thank you for reading along this week, especially to my new subscribers! This is the first post like this I’ve ever done and if it wasn’t to your taste don’t worry, I’ll get back to my book journal and chaos thoughts posts in the new year.

And thank you for reading along this year — see you in 2024!

Bonus photo for those who’ve made it down this far:

1. To be clear, I mean Carrie from Sex and the City. I’m iffy on Carrie from And Just Like That…