I don’t know Paris and Paris fashion well enough to do it.’ Field, who was a consultant on Emily in Paris, explains why she pulled out after two seasons. Photograph: Stephanie Branchu/Netflix Pat in the City. My Life of Fashion, Style, and Breaking All the Rules by Patricia Field, published by 4th Estate, is out on 14 February. Field has little to say about its sequel, And Just Like That. She didn’t work on it because of a schedule clash with Emily in Paris. But like everyone, she was “up in arms that [Kim Cattrall] didn’t go”, she says. “But I get it, that was personal with her, and it doesn’t matter now.” This outfit is original, and inherent in the actress,” I said. “If this show’s a hit, the opening will be memorable and stay fresh.” I knew anything less would be dated by next season. People want to see what they haven’t seen before – not some trendy shift dress from Fall 199-whatever. From the opening credits to every single scene of the series, however long it might last, my overriding aim would be to make sure that while the clothes were expressive and helping to tell the story, they were never burnt with exposure.

Field on the runway for her Art Fashion Runway show at Art Basel in 2019. Photograph: Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesField got the SATC gig after meeting Parker on the set of the 1995 romantic comedy Miami Rhapsody, one of her earliest gigs as a costume designer, and it was Parker who introduced her to Star. They had already shot the pilot for SATC with another costume designer, but if you rewatch it, you can see it looked too 90s, and too realistic. In one painfully familiar scene, Carrie is working from home in a baggy blue shirt and grey jogging bottoms. Field would change all that. If I were a fish, the hook that used to catch me was how someone put themselves together. I just looked for creativity

verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Field was raised surrounded by clothes, at some points literally. She is half-Armenian, half-Greek, but US-born: her maternal grandparents emigrated from Lesbos to New York, where her mother began working at a laundry. Here she met Field’s father, an Armenian tailor. He died of TB when Field was young and her mother got remarried, to a man she met through a dry-cleaning business. In the book, Field jokes that she has “[Greek] mercantilism woven into my DNA”. From the iconic stylist and fashion provocateur whose designs transformed culture—bringing the glitz of Studio 54 and the sophistication of Sex and the City to the mainstream—comes a playful yet intimate memoir of a life spent challenging conventions.