‘Sex and the City’: Sarah Jessica Parker Explains Why Many People Claim to Have Carrie’s Tutu
Sex and the City fans eagerly await And Just Like That… Season 2 and all the fashion it brings with it. Behind-the-scenes photos have already circulated, revealing Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) in various fabulous outfits. One reprises her notorious Vivienne Westwood wedding gown, and another honors her most famous fashion statement: the tutu Carrie wore in the Sex and the City intro. In a 2022 Vogue video, Parker dished on her dozens of looks over the decades, including Carrie’s tutu and why others associated with the hit HBO show claim to have it.
The ‘Sex and the City’ opening sequence introduced Carrie’s tutu
“Do-do-do-do.” Those first four notes in the Sex and the City intro will forever be associated with Carrie, Miranda Hobbs (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall).
As a piano and vibraphone play a sexy Latin groove, the camera shows the Manhattan skyline. A smiling Carrie appears, strolling on the sidewalk, where she abruptly gets splashed by an NYC bus displaying an ad for her sex column.
And what is she wearing? A baby-pink tank top, strappy heels, and a white tutu. Costume designer Patricia Field created the look and many others during the series’ six-season run.
“It was very difficult for the producers to understand the tutu,” Field told Entertainment Weekly in 2017. “Sarah Jessica and I were fighting for it, and [Sex and the City show creator] Darren [Star] said, ‘OK, but I want other outfits as possibilities.’”
Sarah Jessica Parker reveals details about Carrie’s tutu from the ‘Sex and the City’ intro
Parker discussed the memorable tulle skirt with Vogue in 2022. She admitted the look really wasn’t her — “it’s Carrie.”
The Sex and the City star explained, “A lot of people claim they have the tutu. I think [Patricia Field] has one. [Showrunner] Michael Patrick [King] has one. We just used one. So my guess is, that sequence required a splash, [so] there were probably four or five or six [tutus].”
Parker added that they shot the splash scene in only one or two takes.
Also, the actor said she was “pretty confident” the shoes were Jimmy Choo and the shirt a “nothing tank top.”
Then SJP smiled as she revealed she has Carrie’s tutu: “Should have just cut to the chase. Where is it? Who’s got it? I’ve got it.”
The tulle skirt was a bargain-bin find
According to Field, she stumbled upon the original tutu in a bargain bin.
“I was in a showroom, and there was a bucket on the floor for, like, $5 each,” the costume designer explained to Vogue in 2012. “And I pull out this tulle skirt, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know — let’s just take this.'” So they did.
Parker fell in love with the skirt and the idea for the opening sequence.
However, they also shot an alternate Sex and the City intro that didn’t include the tutu. Instead, Carrie wore a light-blue sleeveless dress and tripped rather than got splashed. But that scene ended up on the cutting-room floor, Entertainment Weekly reports.
Darren Star, who gave in to the idea of the tutu, later said, “It was such a brilliant choice because, in a way, Carrie is dancing through her life in New York.”
