One of Carrie’s dresses in And Just Like That cost under £4

The show’s costume designers debunk rumours the dress was from a fast fashion brand

Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw in And Just Like That... (Photograph by Craig Blankenhorn / HBO Max)

The mystery that shrouded a dress worn by Sarah Jessica Parker’s character in the third episode of And Just Like That… has been solved by the show’s costume designers.

The dress, a strappy paisley print maxi dress, was first seen by fans when photographs from the set of the Sex and the City (SATC) reboot surfaced earlier this year.

However, fans were disappointed after it appeared that the boho chic dress was from fast fashion giant Forever 21. There was further confusion after boutique clothing brand Raga claimed the dress was its own design, called the Avah Ruffle Strap Maxi Dress.

But costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago have revealed that the mysterious dress had come from the latter’s “personal archive of secondhand finds” and did not have a label.

Rogers told Page Six Style that Santiago had “bought it many years ago for US$5 or US$6 (between £3.73 and £4.48)”.

“We later learned that Forever 21 did have a [very similar] dress, but knocked off something from an Indian designer,” she claimed. “Given how long Danny had the dress, we think it was probably from the original designer.”

Fans were also divided over the styling of the dress, which Carrie wears to confront Natasha, Mr Big’s ex-wife. Carrie wears a blue button-up shirt under the dress that featured a bird design on the back.

Rogers explained that the styling decision was made because showrunner Michael Patrick King wanted Carried dressed in something out of character.

“It was Sarah Jessica’s idea to include the shirt with the bird underneath,” she added.

Parker, 56, also brought some of Carrie’s original pieces out of her SATC archives for the reboot, including a studded leather belt from designer label Streets Ahead, which Carrie wore in the first SATC movie.

Some other iconic pieces from the archives that returned on screen included the gold “Carrie” nameplate necklace and the purple sequin Fendi “baguette” bag.

Rogers, who worked alongside legendary costume designer Patricia Field in the original SATC series, and Santiago, who worked on both movies, told The Independent earlier this month that they modernised the characters’ wardrobes while staying true to their original sense of style.

Santiago said: “[Parker had] been storing it over all these years so she gave us access to go into her archive and pull some of these special pieces that we wanted to reintroduce. They’re old friends to a lot of fans.”