Sex and the City fans rejoice as Carrie Bradshaw changes ‘painful’ narrative around iconic wedding dress

Second season of ‘And Just Like That...’ premiered Thursday 22 June

The season two premiere of And Just Like That brought back a familiar face for many loyal Sex and the City fans, and no, it wasn’t the upcoming cameo from actor Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones.

The second season of And Just Like That, which debuted on Max on Thursday 22 June, saw the return of Carrie Bradshaw’s beloved Vivienne Westwood wedding gown, which she wore to her failed wedding to Mr Big (Chris Noth) in the 2008 Sex and the City movie.

When Sarah Jessica Parker was photographed wearing the fan-favourite bridal gown in the streets of New York City last November, many fans wondered the reason for its reprise. Now, the season two premiere has revealed that Carrie dons the flowing gown to none other than the Met Gala.

Warning: Spoilers ahead

In the season two premiere, Carrie works with an up-and-coming designer named Smoke (Bethlehem Million) to create a custom design for the annual fashion event, themed “Veiled Beauty”. But when things go awry, the columnist resorts to her fashion archive and pulls the wedding dress out of her closet.

“I may have something,” Carrie tells Smoke during the episode. “I’ve only worn it once. It’s not the best memory.”

She even decides to wear the same bird-like headpiece that she wore to her wedding, but this time pairing it with teal gloves, teal heels, and a matching teal cape that Smoke had made. Although wearing the same wedding gown twice may seem like bad luck to some, Parker revealed how the new season of And Just Like That was able to give the dress “new life”.

In an interview with People, Parker detailed how she and And Just Like That showrunner Michael Patrick King wanted to change the narrative surrounding the iconic dress by breaking it out for season two.

“How would it become something else?” the actor told People. “How would we layer it and give it a new life and have it feel modern and change the poetry that surrounded that dress from a lot of really painful but important memories that I don’t think Carrie really wanted to let go of, especially given this loss?”

King – who directed the original Sex and the City movie – noted how they wanted first-time viewers to relate to the moment as well, despite not knowing the original importance of the wedding dress. “It must mean something for someone who has never seen the scene where Carrie is left at the altar,” King told People. “So, you just have to create a story, like in that case, the Met Ball, which is named Veiled Beauty, which gets me to wedding veil, which gets to wedding gown, and then Carrie tells Smoke: ‘It wasn’t the best memory.’”

“All you need to know is it was a bad moment that she’s putting it on, and then everybody gets to enjoy the gown.”

And just like that, fans of the series took to Twitter on Thursday to applaud Carrie for repurposing the iconic wedding dress for the Met Gala. “CARRIE WEARING HER WEDDING DRESS AHH LOVE THE CHANGING THE NARRATIVE TO THAT DRESS,” one viewer tweeted.

“I know it was supposed to be a sad moment but when Carrie threw on her wedding dress and veil and rocked it with them shoes and cape I was like yass!!!!” another person said. “Take that pain and sashay that gala”.

A third fan wrote: “Carrie Bradshaw repurposed the Vivienne Westwood wedding dress and wore it to the MET Ball!! What a way to honour her,” which appears to refer to the designer’s death in December 2022.

Although the return of the wedding dress was a nice surprise for fans of the original series, Parker and King detailed the lengths they had to go to retrieve the Vivienne Westwood gown. “We weren’t entirely certain that we could get the dress back,” Parker told People. “It was in London and unearthing it was complicated – getting it through customs in time and then making sure was this, in fact, the original dress? The colour looked different.”

Not to mention Parker worried about fitting into the dress more than a decade later, adding that it “was terrifying to put it on”.

“It was really incredible and fun and thank goodness it fit!” Parker said. “It was very special to have it back in our possession for a brief period and to figure out how it helped tell this story now.”

The first two episodes of And Just Like That season two are available to stream on Max.

Read The Indpendent’s two-star review here.