Smash hit

Linda Fiorentino’s fierce and sexually predatory character in The Last Seduction is toted as a heroine by the four women. The repeated orgasms, condoms and sex toys picked up where 1970s Cosmo left off: they reinforced a woman’s sense of entitlement to sexual pleasure, free of religious guilt or derogatory labels. Camille Paglia, the Madonna-loving feminist thinker and critic, says that the show was a victory for “the huge wing of pro-sex feminists”.

Yet, as Marge Simpson, in a 2004 episode of The Simpsons, said: “That’s the show about four women acting like gay guys.” The brand of sexuality worn by Samantha was criticised for being more akin to that of a gay man than of a woman. Can you really be happy with just a diet of casual sex? Jong, who, in her seminal 1970s novel, Fear of Flying, coined the phrase “zipless f***” to describe consequence-free and highly satisfying sex – the sort of sex she also described as “rarer than a unicorn” – now says that, despite Samantha’s efforts, the zipless f*** is still rare. “Certainly, women have less problem with spontaneous sex than they used to, but spontaneous sex is not always great sex.”

Witnessing one topless orgasm after another from all the actresses except SJP, went some way to encouraging women to feel entitled to good sex. It is, however, a relief, in a Samantha and Richard scene, when the fortysomething spends all night at a rooftop pool party for two, to see a flash of Richard’s richard (a penis in a sitcom – that’s a first), along with hints that Samantha is finally “doing it for love”. This was the first time we saw that she wasn’t just a randy gay man trapped in a woman’s body. Fabulous fantasy that Samantha is, relentlessly emotion-free sex is still a suspect ambition. Achieving orgasm and expecting pleasure, however, is not.

FASHION

The looks created by the show’s stylist, Patricia Field, were what really made SATC so seductive. The most cheering thing I took from the show was that heartache could often swiftly be dispatched by pulling on a great outfit and brazening it out. It did not make me want to have more sex, it made me want to enjoy clothes more. The show legitimised the power of clothes and image as a weapon in the female armoury.

Tamara Mellon, of Jimmy Choo, says: “It portrayed a new sophistication and confidence in women. The girl who watches the show loves luxury brands, is fashion-forward, sophisticated, elegant and independent.” Manolo Blahnik says this is down to “Patricia Field’s genius. She broke rules and created something women could relate to. It was sexy, quirky and fresh, without being threatening. Women liked that”.

This still has an effect on sales of certain items, four years after the show ended. “People still call for our Sedaraby and Campar shoes in particular, to this day,” Blahnik says. “We’ve had to remake the Sedaraby because it’s going to appear in the movie. SATC made women think that they can never have enough shoes and bags. Fabulous, no?”

Well, some might say not so fabulous, considering the cost of a pair of undeniably perfect Manolos. Carrie’s debt was perhaps made light of – considering the size of her wardrobe, she should have been shouldering a credit crisis crunchier than corn flakes. Feminists such as Moore, who enjoyed SATC “purely for the shoes, clothes and fantasy”, found that the characters presented no design for postfeminist living. “It makes me mad to suggest that, just because we can buy nice things, we are free,” she says.

It was not all about designer clobber, however. The power of mixing colour, the allure of vests, exposed bras and wandering around in Y-fronts, socks and killer heels, the subversion of the prom dress, the excitement around a cheap accessory or a vintage bag – Field taught women that style has little to do with money and a lot to do with confidence and individuality. “I don’t like words such as ‘style’,” she says. “If I can justify a look in my brain, I don’t care about others. I don’t care about trends. I’m not here to sell merchandise.” Ask her about age-appropriate dressing and she gets irate: “You can measure age in many ways – spirit, body, heart, intelligence. I hate stereotypes of how age groups or genders should behave.”

Field has, by her own admission, spent a lot of time with strong women and gay men; the SATC writing team was largely female. Between them, they gave humour and colour to the things in life that often go unmentioned or bemoaned. SATC made the things we thought were bad or embarrassing look really rather fabulous.

Patricia Field was at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in New York

Sex and the City: the Movie opens nationwide on May 28

REAL-LIFE SATC GIRLS

Clara Eisenberg, 32, lawyer

“Miranda addressed my own concerns as a working mother, including her desire to conceal her pregnancy at work. I was 5½ months pregnant before I told anybody. I understood her decision to marry Steve, too. If a mother is to maintain her career, somebody laid-back is a great balancer.”

Grace Woodward, 32, fashionista

“Carrie empowered us – she showed you can be fabulous and quirkily happy without a picture-perfect life mapped out. She made it okay to question things and be open. Her lifestyle mirrors my own – I’m also a part-time fag hag with a chronic shoe habit.”

Perdita Martell, 33, entrepreneur

“I totally related to Charlotte’s quest for a prince – a man who is intelligent and successful, with traditional values. I have a strong sense of right and wrong, and am easily shocked, too.”

Meena Khera, 36, PR

“Samantha had huge resonance with me because I work in the celebrity/luxury lifestyle sector. I loved her fabulous can-do attitude, but I wouldn’t say I can identify with all her bedroom exploits. . . ”

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