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Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw has worn a lot of wild fashion items over the years. But arguably the most eyebrow-raising of them all was the colossal “cloud hat” she sported in the And Just Like That… season 3 premiere.
One scene showed Carrie taking a stroll in a New York City park with a friend while wearing a voluminous, bonnet-style hat that had fans comparing her to Strawberry Shortcake. Series creator Michael Patrick King joked to Glamour that the gingham-print linen hat, designed by milliner Maryam Keyhani, was like “the Hindenburg balloon that landed on [Carrie’s] head.”
Parker, 60, discussed the viral accessory — and how she fought to wear it onscreen — during a Q&A with Evan Ross Katz, hosted by Threads at il Buco al Mare in Amagansett, N.Y., on Aug. 11.
The actress recalled walking into a fitting with the show’s wardrobe team and immediately spotting the hat amid the “racks and racks and racks” of clothes, “miles of shoes” and tables brimming with jewelry and accessories.
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“I personally love hats on Carrie. I love it,” the actress said. “So the minute I saw that hat, I’m sure I said something similar to, ‘How do I get that on my head? How do we convince Michael Patrick [King] it’s necessary? And what scene can it go in that we can make a case in front of the court and we can say, ‘No, Michael Patrick, this is not going to be distracting, this is going to be great?’ ”
Parker continued to effuse about the hat, noting how it was “massive and shapeless” and that milliners typically don’t work with linen because it’s “an enemy of shape and form” (hence the floppiness).
“I loved it. I loved it,” she reiterated. “So I was just like, ‘We’ve got to find a place for this.’ ”
As for the virality of the costume choice — and the polarizing reactions it sparked — Parker told Katz that she “never thought twice” about anyone’s response to the hat.
“My hand to whatever, this is an honorable answer. And I’ll tell you that I was like, ‘This is going to be fun or interesting,’ ” she said.
Craig Blankenhorn/Max
Parker even suggested in a May interview with Glamour that she never thought the massive hat would be a whole “thing.”
“[Carrie’s] walking through Washington Square Park eating ice cream in an Ossie Clark dress and Dr. Scholl’s … and it didn’t seem that it would intrude in any way on the scene or even in fact be a thing,” she told the outlet. “You could have told me that hat was three by four. I would’ve felt the same.”
Speaking to USA Today back in June, the Sex and the City star joked that, after successfully campaigning to wear the hat in the season opener, she’d “really worn [King] down” to the point where he was willing to embrace hats of all kinds — and sizes — for the show.
“His eyes have adapted to large-scale things on heads now, so he’s pretty generous about how often they can appear,” she said.
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At the time, King predicted that the cloud hat would become an instant classic.
“It’ll be a thing. People will wear it at Halloween,” he told USA Today, explaining, “It makes people say, ‘I love it. I hate it. Oh, my God, what was she thinking?’ “
All seasons of And Just Like That… and Sex and the City are available to stream on HBO Max.
