Sarah Jessica Parker's Iconic "Sex and the City" Tutu Sells At Auction
Image: HBO Max
It’s one of the most famous tutus in fashion history — and it just sold at auction for more than 10,000 times its original purchase price! If you’re a Sex and the City fan you recognize the iconic skirt. It’s the one Sarah Jessica Parker wears during the opening credits of each episode of the hit HBO television series, and it just sold at auction for $52,000.
Costume designer, Patricia Field found the oyster-white, three-tier tutu skirt (as well as four others identical to it) in a $5 bin while shopping for the series in New York City’s Garment District 27 years ago. Field says she liked it for the show’s opening credits, because it wasn’t tied to a specific year.
“I showed it to Sarah Jessica, and she loved it,” Field said on the skirt’s certificate of authenticity. “She felt the idea, even though some people on the show didn’t get it right away. We ended up shooting three outfit options for the opening, but this was by far the most original concept.”
Field wrote in her 2023 memoir, “Pat in the City”, that the tutu encapsulated what was special about the hit HBO show. “The tutu-style skirt was whimsical, adventurous, and unexpected—kind of like this show,” she wrote. She also recalled telling the show’s creator Darren Star ,“If this show’s a hit, the opening will be memorable and stay fresh.”
Images: Alamy Stock Photos / Julien’s Auctions
The tutu also made an appearance in the 2008 Sex and the City movie, in a scene in which Carrie is clearing out her closet and deciding whether to keep certain outfits. With her friends Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda (played by Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon) watching the impromptu fashion show, “this look was a unanimous ‘keep,’” the auction listing said.
Julien’s Auctions , which sold the piece during it’s “Unstoppable: Signature Styles of Iconic Women in Fashion” auction, estimated it would sell for between $8,000 - 12,000. Auction organizers underestimated it’s appeal to Sex and the City fashionistas. The skirt drew 24 bids before selling for an eye-popping $52,000.
Sarah Jessica Parker revealed in February 2022 that she still has one of skirts in her collection. “A lot of people claim they have the tutu,” she said. “I think Pat [Field] has one, Michael Patrick (King, who directed and wrote many of the show’s episodes) has one. We just used one…Where is it, who’s got it? I’ve got it.”
Well, now, someone just paid $52,000 to join this exclusive tutu-owning club.
Marena Bronson is an award-winning journalist, a life-long nerd, and the Editor-in-Chief of Fashion and Fandom. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.