'A hat that borders on performance art': How And Just Like That... gave us one of TV's most bizarre fashion moments ever

From Sex and the City to its sequel, heroine Carrie Bradshaw has always pushed the boat out with her fashion. But her latest choice of headwear has shocked viewers like never before.

There was other news unfolding around the world on 20 May, 2024, but in one corner of the internet, there was only one topic of conversation: what was that on Sarah Jessica Parker's head?

Parker had been snapped filming as Carrie Bradshaw for the third season of And Just Like That… in New York with an incredibly oversized floppy, brown and white gingham bonnet with two straps hanging down. "Is that a pillow case?" one person commented after Parker also posted a picture of her wearing the offending item on her Instagram account, which ended up on global news sites. "Wearing a diaper bag as a hat, clever!" posted another, while there were other less-than-favourable comparisons to Strawberry Shortcake dolls from the 1980s and Little Miss Muffett, sitting on her tuffet. "It's altogether unhinged," a journalist from The Cut wrote, summing up the entire outfit, in which the hat was paired with a striped coloured Ossie Clark dress from 1973 and Dr Scholl's sandals.

Now a year later, the opening episode of the Sex and the City sequel series featuring the giant headwear has screened – and fans are even more bemused. "Carrie girl..." one viewer wrote on X. "What the hell is this hat." Another added: "I saw the Carrie hat. I am traumatized." "I can get behind the wildest of Carrie’s fashion choices but this duvet cover of a hat is truly unhinged," commented another person, while others sprang to its defence: "Carrie's ENORMOUS hat in the first episode of And Just Like That season 3 is insane I love it lol."

Finally seeing the scene in context, we now know that Carrie wasn't wearing the hat for a prank or as fancy dress, but perhaps the most the most shocking thing about it all is that the item goes by entirely unmentioned by Carrie's friend Seema Patel (Sarita Choudhury) – and other passers-by – as they eat their ice-cream on a stroll through Washington Square Park. There's not even a single drive-by diss from the famously vocal New York taxi drivers. "This girl is so sure, so confident," says Seema, in reference to Carrie, but she's talking about her relaxed, on-off relationship with Aidan Shaw (John Corbett), rather than her alarming sartorial selections.

"Carrie Bradshaw has always pushed the envelope with hats," says Lauren Garroni of fashion/pop culture podcast and Instagram account, Every Outfit. "But this is by far, the most insane thing she's ever worn." Her Every Outfit partner Chelsea Fairless – both are self-titled "Sex and the City historians" – agrees: "To wear a hat of this magnitude on the streets of New York borders on performance art."

"It's hard to imagine the thought process behind the costume design," explains Garroni, "apart from the fact that Carrie is an eccentric dresser. Perhaps they wanted to up the ante fashion-wise this season? But I don't think that they were going for a specific look, because no one dresses like this. It feels a little Strawberry Shortcake or Holly Hobbie-adjacent, but those are such abstract references."

Some digging from detectives from the fashion world at the time revealed that the hat in question was a €450 (£379) piece called Head in the Clouds from the artist Maryam Keyhani, which she notes on her website is: "only for the brave and sensitive". Keyhani told The Guardian that she felt "pure pride and joy" in Carrie wearing the hat on screen, adding "she looks like she's completely disregarding what mainstream culture tells her – her inner world is much more important than that of the outside world". Perhaps as a response to The Cut's criticism, Keyhani added: "It's the freedom to look totally unhinged if you want to – and as women, at a certain age we truly don't care what people think of us – as long as we feel right about it!" 

So how did one of Carrie's most controversial looks come into fruition? The whole outfit is the creative vision of And Just Like That…'s costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago. And while it might look like the results of random rummage through a thrift store; the pair drew from Carrie's life and the planned events of series three to construct her wardrobe choices.

"There is a major plot point that heavily influenced Carrie's style this season," Rogers tells the BBC, mindful of spoilers for the 12-part series. The first big news for Carrie is that she has decided to move from being a sex-memoir author into a historical romance novelist – "romantasy", her editor begs her to pivot to, to be on trend in the publishing world – so perhaps she's looking to Jane Austen or Brontë sister bonnets for inspiration in her new novel-writing era. 

The other shift in her life is that Carrie starts to spend time in Aidan's rural farmhouse in Virginia, as the couple navigate their complicated relationship status across two different locations with very different cultures. In a later episode she buys some old-fashioned local gowns in a look she dubs "Little House On The Carrie". Either consciously or unconsciously, Carrie appears to be playing around with a new identity through the medium that she knows best: fashion – and to see if the cap fits.

As for the hat itself, Rogers says "I love the designer of that hat, Maryam Keyhani. Danny met her on Instagram,", explaining they sourced the Head in the Clouds piece together. It was a co-sign from Parker, she adds: "SJ loved quite a few pieces of Maryam's that we didn't have scenes for and we would keep trying to get them in. SJ is so collaborative and brings an incredible energy into her fittings."

"I saw that hat, and I wanted it on my head immediately," Parker told Glamour. "My feeling is, when I see something like that, Who wouldn't want that on their head? And can't we find a reason for it? Sometimes you have to project a need where it doesn't exist... It didn't seem that it would intrude in any way on the scene or even in fact be a thing. You could have told me that hat was three by four. I would've felt the same."

There has previously been hat-drama on the set of And Just Like That… when showrunner Michael Patrick King banned a hat that Rogers found in Paris's Clignancourt flea market – and which Parker also adored – from the finale of series one, citing that he was worried it would cover too much of the actor's face. This, according to the And Just Like That… The Documentary, earned him the title of "hat killer" by Rogers and Santiago. However, Rogers says that Patrick King had no issues with the big bonnet of season three: "I believe that MPK has lived down his past moniker as a hat killer with that one."

Rogers adds that the hat also expresses a deeper meaning for her; fashion as resistance. "[Keyhani and I] have become close because she is a true artist and free spirit. She gives me hope that one day there will be a brighter day in this country because people like her exist and resist."

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Asked whether she was surprised by the reaction of the public to the look, Rogers says that one of the pitfalls about filming outside in one of the busiest cities in the country, is that the looks are exposed to the public before the show has even wrapped filming. "Any exterior scene gets way too much exposure," she says.

When Garroni and Fairless posted the photo on their Instagram account at the time it first went viral, "the vibe in the comments was overwhelmingly negative," says Fairless. But, she adds: "That's to be expected. Avant-garde fashion isn't designed to appeal to the masses". "If anything," Garroni adds, "it's designed to repulse the masses." 

The OTT and often highly divisive fashion is of course why many viewers love to tune in to And Just Like That… just as they did Sex and the City before it, when costume designer Patricia Field concocted equally out-there outfits whose spirit Rogers and Danny Santiago have often followed. "Don't take yourself so seriously," Field told the BBC back in 2023, of the perpetual armchair critics of outrageous on-screen fashion. "Enjoy yourself! Enjoy life! Try a little originality!"

And if some looks don't land, that's the price And Just Like That… has to pay for playing about with the more extreme end of high fashion, Fairless says: "And Just Like That… is purposely outlandish, although it varies from look to look. We may have seen some very eccentric outfits on the show, but we've also seen Carrie dress more conservatively than she ever has.  

"I think some fans want her to wear a tasteful, bias-cut dress with a pair of strappy sandals forever. They don't care about the looks that challenge traditional notions of 'good taste'. While other people, like Lauren and myself, live for the more controversial outfits." Items that might include Carrie's JW Anderson Pigeon purse from season two, or the Moncler duvet-ballgown she sported during a New York blizzard.

"The fashion has always been hit or miss," Garroni adds. "But you don't get the hits without taking big risks, and that's what also leads to the misses. Carrie's look has always been about juxtaposing 'opposite' styles of clothing, and that's never without risk." As for whether large milkmaid bonnets will be en vogue for Summer 2025? "No disrespect to Carrie Bradshaw, but I don't think that most women want to wear massive gingham hats!" affirms Garroni. 

"If it becomes a trend, I'll eat my words." Or perhaps more fittingly, her hat.  

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