Reporter | Huang Shan Edit | Lou Shuqin
The latest American drama, Which premiered in two episodes, "And Just Like That... Apparently not as much as fans of the show feared.
On the one hand, as the sequel to the classic urban theme American drama "Sex and the City" after many years, the premiere plot of "Just Like This..." has quickly integrated into the real context of current American society after a short period of inheritance.
On the other hand, the heroine Carrie Bradshaw and her female friends maintained the overall standard of dress in the sequel, which made the demanding "fashionable elves" breathe a sigh of relief.
You know, before the official broadcast of "Just Like This...", the producer of the American video streaming media HBO Max officially released some stills, the style of the picture is as follows. The dress style of the heroine Kelly in the photo really made fans sweat.
However, the feeling of watching the show is usually subjective, and whether the general audience recognizes the fashion style in the sequel depends on the reality data.
Women's Daily reported that fashion e-commerce information site Love the Sales data shows that after the premiere of "Just Like This..." last week, the search volume of several fashion brands and items worn by the characters in the play soared.
At the beginning of the first episode, Kelly wore a printed cropped coat to dinner with friends, this printed coat from women's designer brand Dries van Noten, which soared 1150% in searches. Kelly also wore a pair of Claude Montana's vintage linen jumpsuits, which also saw a 500% increase in searches.
The first episode of the sequel also features actress Kelly's Manolo Blahnik wedding shoes again.
After the first episode of "Just Like This..." aired, searches for these royal blue satin diamond heels soared by 391%.
The shoes first appeared in the 2008 sex and the city movie version as the wedding shoes of Kelly and the character "Mr. Big".
The data also shows that searches from luxury brand Loewe rose 168 percent after the show premiered, as another actress, Miranda Hobbes, carried Loewe's bucket bag on the show.
Similarly, the show's third lead actress, Charlotte York, wore a Go Silk fuchsia satin top and a luxury brand Alexander McQueen's dress.
In addition, the supporting characters in the sequel also pay attention to the dress, which can be seen that the producer has added modern footnotes to the costumes and makeup of each supporting role according to different personalities and ages.
For example, one of the show's podcast hosts has multiple identities: she is also a stand-up comedian and an equalizer. Just like the character's language style, his genderless style of dress is in line with the style and aesthetics of the current progressive American society.
In an interview with Women's Daily, Danny Santiago, a costume designer on the production team of "Just Like This...", said: "We have incorporated new elements into our costumes [in the play], and through cooperation with new and young designers internationally, we have made the shape more modern."
"We also brought in these young designers through Instagram (in the styling team). Still, (and while the style has been updated), we've maintained the usual style of the actresses. ”
In fact, it's been 13 years since the last movie version of Sex and the City aired. There are two film versions of Sex and the City, released in 2004 and 2008. The TV series version of "Sex and the City" defines the era earlier. The first season of the series was officially broadcast in 1998.
The story is set in Manhattan, New York, USA, and tells the emotions and lives of four female characters in the metropolis. Because the lines of the play are bold and spicy, there are very deep and large-scale discussions on the topic of gender, and in the United States around 2000, even the international community has triggered a very huge response.
As a result, the producers took advantage of the chase and produced a total of six seasons of the drama version of "Sex and the City", which was broadcast in 2003 as the final season.
Because the two film versions are based on the original drama, the emotional relationship between the four heroines has made waves, and the storyline cannot withstand scrutiny, and it is more like a fashion scenery blockbuster than the original drama, and many fans are quite dissatisfied with it.
Therefore, when the producer HBO Max announced the production of "Just Like This...", many fans were worried that the sequel story would focus on the protagonist's twists and turns.
But judging from the premiere plot, the focus of the sequel is on how three urban women who have entered their fifties are facing the death of their loved ones, social unrest and family fragmentation, how to reconcile themselves in the current social context of absolute political correctness in the United States, and how to talk to the younger generation who master different language systems.
In addition to the screenwriters who have kept pace with the times, from "Sex and the City" to "Just Like This...", the evolution of the dress style in the series also truly reflects the changes in American aesthetics and the changes in the global fashion industry in the past 20 years.
In the first episode of "Just Like That...", Kelly is invited to a podcast to discuss gender topics. During the live broadcast, the host asked Kelly a large-scale private question, which Kelly avoided embarrassing her by answering "it hasn't been since Barney's closed."
Barney's New York is a well-known buyer retailer in New York with a history of nearly 100 years. In the Sex and the City series, she is the favorite of Kelly, a gender columnist who loves fashion.
In the prologue to Kelly's famous quote: "If you're a hard worker, then you can shop at Barney's as a reward for your occasional splurge." ”
But today, 20 years later, Barney's is an outdated luxury retailer in the eyes of a younger generation of fashion and luxury consumers. In terms of mode and selection, they cannot meet their needs.
In 2019, after Barely surviving the 2008 financial crisis and retail winter, the nearly century-old retailer announced a filing for bankruptcy protection. After being sold in 2020, Barney's closed its massive flagship store on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York, heralding the end of an era of fashion retailers.
In her latest sequel, Kelly used "Barney's closure" to cover up the embarrassment, which not only echoed her long-term "fashionable" personality in the play, but also expressed her feelings about the changes in the fashion retail industry in the past 20 years. Like the 50-year-old heroines in the show, they must adapt to the new social normal of the post-pandemic era.