millennial style icon (despite her sometimes question-
able fashion choices, including wearing a dirndl to a
New York picnic) and Emily is clearly a fan: she wears
a black tutu to the ballet, referencing Carrie’s famous
white one (found for $5 in a bargain bin by Field) in
the opening sequence of Sex and the City. “It was a
wink from Lily to Sarah, and from Emily to Carrie,”
Fitoussi says.
Field loves a wink — her favourite Sex and
the City moment, she says, is Carrie’s
corsage. Not the original one in series three
(which was Parker’s idea), but the gigantic
version in the somewhat maligned
2008 film. “She’s walking on Fifth
Avenue and she sees these four young
girls, and her gigantic flower is like this
signal to them, to say, ‘We’re back!’ ”
Field couldn’t do the Sex and the City
reboot, And Just Like That, because she
was filming in Paris, so she suggested
Molly Rogers, who worked with her on
the original show. What does she think
of the looks so far, such as Carrie in
a baby-blue Norma Kamali bodycon
dress? “I like some of it, I don’t like all of
it, but I know what Molly’s dealing with.”
I sit up straight — is she about to spill
some tea? “Well, I know those gals!” she
laughs. “Sarah Jessica thinks she knows
everything — and she does.” (The two have
a similar sense of style, she says, having
met on the set of the 1995 film Miami Rhap-
sody; Parker then recommended Field for
the Sex and the City gig.) “Cynthia Nixon
thinks she knows everything — and shedoesn’t!” she cackles. “Even today, when I speak with
Molly, it’s about Cynthia. I say, ‘I remember what you
are going through.’ ”
Field is closest “socially” to Kim Cattrall, who played
“sex bomb” Samantha and is extremely funny, Field
says. “I would walk into her dressing room and she’d
be watching old female comedians like Mae West.”
What does she think of her much-publicised
absence from And Just Like That? (Cattrall
and Parker allegedly don’t get on.) “It is a
vacuum,” she says. “I hear it everywhere.
Everyone is mad she won’t be in it.”
At almost 80, Field is showing no signs
of slowing down (“My gallery is my slow-
down!” she protests). She is meant to be
working on a show about four black women
in Harlem called Run the World but it’s
currently on hiatus, which she is relieved
about as she and Fitoussi are “exhausted”
after Emily in Paris. Did either of them
succumb to sweatpants in their fatigue?
Absolutely not. “I call it depressionwear,”
Field says. “It’s all sweatpants and sneakers
— even in Paris. Where is Paris chic?”
“Poor Pat,” Fitoussi sighs. “The uniform
everywhere is a lumpen grey hoodie and
a pair of Converse. I call it ‘Starbucks
dressing’.” Thank goodness, then, in
this sea of athleisure, for Field and
Fitoussi — whose outfits may not be
for everyone, but could never, ever
be accused of being boring. ■Series two of Emily in Paris starts on
Netflix on WednesdayLeft The core cast members of Sex and the City on the set of
the 2008 film. Below America Ferrera and Michael Urie in Ugly
Betty. Below left Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway in The Devil
Wears Prada. Bottom Patricia Field with Kim Cattrall in 2008Netflix, Getty Images, Shutterstock, HBO, © 20th Century Fox
The Sunday Times Style • 23