I Couldn’t Help But Wonder…

Jumpsuit via Rent the Runway, jump to the bottom to see similar options

If I told you this striped jumpsuit was Sex and the City inspired, could you guess by which character?

I have to spend today, the 20th anniversary of Sex and the City, paying tribute to the show I love. I even dressed like Samantha to celebrate! (Although she likely wouldn’t have safety pinned the v-neck up so high.) My relationship with the show started 10 years ago. I’d never seen an episode of the series until college. My family didn’t have HBO, and even if we had, I certainly wouldn’t have been allowed to watch the show as a teenager. But in college, a girl on my floor had the box set and we’d gather in her room to watch episodes over and over. In fact, several of my friends today and I bonded over our love of the show! At the end of the year, wanting to be like Carrie, I had my first cosmopolitan. Which was incidentally my last because let me tell you, the box mix we bought at TJMaxx didn’t taste as delicious as it looked on TV.

Since the Sex and the City movie came out when I was in college, my love for the show didn’t die. I eventually also obtained every series on DVD and have watched them so many times I can still recite whichever episode comes on TV today. When I was young (and naive), I was drawn to the show because Carrie was the woman I thought I wanted to be. A fashionista in a big city, doing what we both loved: writing. We both had curly blonde hair and a penchant for dating…not dating anyone in particular, but testing the waters with all different types of guys! Although I didn’t move to NYC, when I lived in my first Chicago apartment with an exposed brick wall, I liked to set up my laptop to face our window looking out on the street, a la Carrie.

A “designer” belt, so very Samantha. Mine is fake, just like her Fendi bag in season 3, episode 14.

In the last few years my watching of Sex and the City became less and less. It wasn’t until I returned from a girls’ trip in Vegas recently that I started to yearn for the four women who felt like friends. I was in Vegas with some of those same college roommates I watched the show with 10 years ago. When I was home after the great weekend with friends, watching some of my favorite episodes helped me feel like they weren’t so far away. It also shed a different light on the show’s core theme. It’s less about hookups, more about friendships. A theme that I can still appreciate today.

Beyond friendships and dating conundrums spanning years and ages, so has the fashion. Like I said, when I saw this jumpsuit I immediately thought it was so very Samantha. I shared another outfit that was inspired by one of Carrie’s most pedestrian fashions. And I can’t ignore Charlotte’s influence on my closet. I recently told a friend I wanted to revamp my style and I was going to dress “either like a real housewife of Atlanta or Charlotte.” Two very different styles, I know, but I think a lady needs to have a little bit of each in her. Sorry Miranda, yours is the only fashion I don’t covet, if only because I wouldn’t be caught dead in a bucket hat.

This blog post is really a love letter to Sex and the City. It aired 20 years ago on June 6, and I first enjoyed it 10 years after that. I may not have made it to New York City, didn’t stay single into my 30s, and am not employed as a freelance writer, but that doesn’t mean I relate to the women any less. As I get older, I’m sure the show will continue to resonate in ways it doesn’t now. For example, in five years the episode with Carrie’s 35th birthday will help give me whatever I need at that time. And until then I’ll keep rewatching – if only to introduce the series to my husband who’s never even seen it! That’s one relationship issue Carrie’s lucky to never dealt with.

Shop for a striped jumpsuit:

Want more reading in honor of Sex and the City’s 20th anniversary? Check these out:

Cosmo: 11 ‘Sex and the City’ Pilot Secrets Straight From the Casting Directors

Buzzfeed: 31 “Sex And The City” Guest Stars You Probably Totally Forgot About

People.com: 4 Sex and the City Trends That You Can (Shockingly) Still Rock Today

Instagram: Dan Clay …but lately mainly Carrie Dragshaw

By the way – I loved this striped jumpsuit so much I wore it twice! The first time was to follow a boating dress code of fun, bright summer colors. As you can probably guess, the temperature during a night on the Chicago River is not the warmest. Thankfully I have a favorite white jean jacket (similar) I wear all summer for chilly nights.