Think back to the opening credits of Sex and the City, and you can’t help but remember one of the show’s most iconic outfits: Carrie’s pale pink tank top and layered white tutu (the one which gets cruelly splashed by a puddle as she walks the streets of New York).
Over the years, this particular ensemble has become a part of SATC mythology - did you know that costume designer Patricia Field found the tutu in a showroom bin for $5? – but despite this, it wasn’t always the first choice for the show’s producers, as never-before-seen alternate opening credits, newly unearthed by Entertainment Weekly, prove.
In this alternative opening sequence, Sarah Jessica Parker is shown wearing a pale blue sleeveless dress: nice enough, but lacking her character’s signature sartorial flair. That’s not the only change you’ll notice: instead of getting splashed by the traffic, Carrie is shown to trip over as she notices the advert for her column on the side of a bus.
‘There were two wardrobes. One was the tutu, and we did one pass where Sarah Jessica was wearing a blue dress and didn’t get splashed; instead, she trips when she sees the ad,’ show creator Darren Star told EW, nearly twenty years after filming the opening credits in March 1998. ‘In my mind, it was a not to the Dick Van Dyke Show, but we didn’t use it. It’s in the archives.’
Patricia Field also recalled having to fight the tutu’s cause, revealing that ‘it was very difficult for the producers to understand the tutu. Sarah Jessica and I were fighting for it, and Darren said, “OK, but I want other outfits as possibilities.”’
With hindsight, Star doesn’t regret his decision one bit, describing it as ‘such a brilliant choice because, in a way Carrie’s dancing through her life in New York.’
Watch the alternate opening credits below...
... And then compare them to the original...
READ MORE: Sarah Jessica Parker Almost Quit Sex And The City After The Pilot