Few actors are as associated with a single character as much as Sarah Jessica Parker, who will always be “Sex and the City” icon Carrie Bradshaw to fans of the HBO hit.
That’s not surprising, considering she played the role for six seasons of the original show (1998 until 2004), in two feature films (in 2008 and 2010) and then in three seasons of revival series “And Just Like That…”
She’s Kept the Wardrobe
During a 2025 appearance on “The Howard Stern Show,” Parker revealed that she had a clause in her contract that allowed her to keep “every single thing” she wore onscreen, including “Sex and the City.”
That came from the lawyer who negotiated her contract, who advised her to forego perks like candles and flowers in her dressing room and instead take the wardrobe.
“Some studios balked at that and it was a real negotiation,” she admitted. “Some of the older studios want to have them for their archive and they make a really good argument. When it came to do ‘Sex and the City,’ it was in my contract.”
As Parker told Stern, she still has every item of Carrie’s now-iconic wardrobe, storing it in a “temperature-regulated” closet.
‘I Never Wear It’
People recently caught up with Parker, and asked if she ever takes her “Sex and the City” clothing out for a spin.
“No, I don’t wear any of the wardrobe that I wore on the show ever,” she said.
“I have it. It’s an archive, but I never wear it. I never have,” she added.
One reason for her decision to not wear those clothes is because of how rare the pieces are, explaining that in most cases there is “only one of them.”
A ‘Separation’ Between Actor and Character
Another reason why she chooses not to recreate Carrie Bradshaw’s legendary looks is because she prefers to keep some distance between herself and the character.
“There’s a huge separation between myself and Carrie Bradshaw,” she explained.
“So it would be like walking around in Sarah Sanderson’s costume,” Parker added, referencing her witchy character in “Hocus Pocus.” “It doesn’t seem applicable to my life.”
Repurposed Wardrobe
That said, in her interview with Howard Stern, Parker pointed out that some of the “Sex and the City” pieces from her archive were pulled out of storage and used years later on “And Just Like That…”
“We use it every year on the show,” she said. “We keep bringing it back and we did it on the show originally. You’ll change out the closet, you wear some of it again — some from 10, 15 years ago. It’s really nice for the audience.”
Asked by Stern how much it costs to store all that clothing, Parker admitted she wasn’t keeping track.
“I don’t know how much it costs, but my guess is it’s probably worth it,” Parker told Stern. “It’s valuable, it’s been really helpful and also we loan it out.”
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Sarah Jessica Parker Reveals the Surprising Reason She Never Wears Any of Her ‘Sex and the City’ Outfits