Celebrity Style

This And Just Like That Finale Look Came Together In 3 Days

Costume designer Danny Santiago breaks down his favorite finale looks and more from season one.

by Jamie Feldman
Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw in an Oscar de la Renta gown with magnolias on it.
Courtesy of HBO

And just like that, 10 weeks of Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda — and their clothes — have come and gone.

The final episode of the much buzzed-about Sex and the City reboot aired Thursday. Among many things it featured a “they-mitzvah,” Miranda’s return to red hair, and, as usual, lots of capital-F Fashion.

According to one of the show’s costume designers, Danny Santiago (who worked with fellow OG SATC designer Molly Rogers to create the looks), at least one of those fashion moments came together in a perfect storm moment that could have been plucked right out of a scene from the show itself.

“We were shooting in Soho and reached out to Fernando Garcia from Oscar de la Renta, who happened to be in the neighborhood,” he tells Bustle over the phone. “He happened to have, of all things, fabric swatches on him. He met Molly, Sarah Jessica, and I in our wardrobe trailer and turned the gown, worn to Jackie’s wedding, around in like, three days. Something insane like that.”

Moving fashion mountains is par for the course at this point, thanks to decades-long relationships between the show and its go-to designers. The process dates back to when the original series aired and, in turn, has afforded what Santiago calls SJP’s “amazing, museum-like archive” of memorable pieces — many of which, to the delight of diehard fashion fans, became easter eggs on And Just Like That.

Courtesy of HBO

“When we used those pieces, we tried to make sure they were used during really special moments, to feature them in the way that they deserve because they’re such loved pieces,” he says. “They’re like characters themselves.”

One of the most recognizable, of course, is the Versace gown Carrie famously first wore to be stood up by then-boyfriend Aleksandr Petrovsky in Paris during SATC’s final season. While it had its moment (worn by Carrie to sit on her famous windowsill eating Jiffy Pop, natch), Rogers and Santiago originally had other plans for the dress.

Courtesy of HBO

“It was supposed to be when Sarah Jessica is back in her apartment, she was going to use it sort of like a blanket, a comforter,” he says. “But it was summer, and all of Europe was closed down, and no one was able to get to the warehouse outside of Milan and pull it from the Versace archive.”

Thus, the popcorn scene was born. “I think it was so fitting for the scene it ended up in,” he says. “It really made it a beautiful moment.”

At this point, Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda each have a fully fleshed-out signature style. But for the reboot, the designers were tasked with telling entirely new fashion stories for the new characters. That includes emerging style star Lisa Todd Wexley, played by Nicole Ari Parker, who in episode nine, achieved something so few have done in the SATC universe — dressing even more over the top for an activity than Carrie herself.

While Carrie arrived at a community service painting project in her version of work clothes (overalls and platform heels), LTW showed up in a Moschino two-piece suit with thigh-high, lace-up boots. Santiago says they were at Moschino looking for something else, spotted the suit, and grabbed the entire look off the rack. Parker loved the idea, and Santiago had a feeling the fans would, too.

Courtesy of HBO

“We want to tickle the fans,” he says. “We're not doing a documentary. We want to have fun with it. We want to have fun with our characters. We want to be able to give somebody a laugh.”

And while they might not be making a documentary, Santiago says plenty of great fashion moments are worth checking out in And Just Like That... The Documentary, which came out in conjunction with the finale.

“One thing people always say, something we hear all the time, is that everyone would love to be a fly in the dressing room or in Carrie’s closet,” he says. “You get to see the actual scenes of us doing fittings, and see what our dressing room was really like.”

And you can do more than just watch, too. For those hoping to put a little piece of Santiago and Rogers’ eye for design in their own closets, the pair teamed up teamed up with vintage resale site ThredUP on curated collections to channel your inner Carrie, Charlotte or Miranda. Proceeds from purchases will be donated to the Willie Garson Fund, which works to connect foster children with loving families.