Execs and the city

PATRICIA FIELD’S deep and smoky voice echoes through a cavernous photo studio where she has been readying the cast of “Cashmere Mafia” for their publicity stills. Field whirls onto the set with magenta hair, turquoise frame spectacles and her fists full of vintage leather belts. She is debating which belts the show’s four leads should wear. In the end she decides to mix it up. She is very good at mixing it up.

To call Field a costume designer is an understatement. She is, after all, the woman whose work on “Sex and the City” turned the groundbreaking cable show into a weekly catwalk. Tutu skirts, flower brooches and nameplate necklaces have never been the same since. And the Manolo Blahniks? Without Field, they wouldn’t be a household word.

Now, after a bit of a hiatus, she’s about to apply her eye and her unique form of character development by couture to a new story line. With a broader potential audience than HBO, “Cashmere Mafia” debuts on ABC on Nov. 27 and gives Field an even longer runway. The show may sound familiar -- the trials and tribulations of four professional women in Manhattan struggling to balance it all -- but the look, judging from two days recently spent with Field on and off the set, will be all its own.

Ask Field about her guiding aesthetic, and the answer is short. “I hope it’s not going to be too conservative,” she says. “I want it to be imaginative and exciting.”

“Conservative” is the last word one would associate with Field, who with her two House of Field stores has been fueling the downtown New York scene with her trademark outrageousness for almost 20 years. Her styling is a mishmash of unexpected elements and inventive touches that add depth and texture to an overall look and make people look twice but in the end always win out.

Back on the set, however, the drama of the moment is the fact that “Cashmere Mafia” isn’t the only show this fall to capitalize on the “Sex and the City” vibe. Candace Bushnell, whose bestseller began the “SATC” dynasty, will roll out her own series for NBC called “Lipstick Jungle,” based on the novel of the same name. Competition over the two programs ramped up over the summer with the defection of Darren Star, who worked with Bushnell on “Sex and the City” and is now the executive producer of “Cashmere Mafia.”

But Field is determined to make her own statement. She has dropped the whimsy of “Sex and the City” and is channeling a more severe look for the no-nonsense woman. Carrie Bradshaw is nowhere in sight. Make no mistake: The clothes on “Cashmere Mafia” are Serious Fashion.

Tapping into the resurgence of the power suit -- a trend seen in Marc Jacobs’ and Martin Margiela’s fall runway shows -- Field has pushed beyond the traditional two pieces of dowdy, charcoal gray wool. Beginning with strong shoulders, angular shapes, boxy blazers and sharp wide-leg trousers, Field’s power suit is confident, stylish, assertive and unapologetic. “It is a combination of strong shapes and colors,” she says. The common element is that the wardrobe will be “expensive and luxury” -- and of course, she will mix up her labels.

Stepping into Field’s wardrobe trailer reveals racks and racks of vintage Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino, as well as a sea of denim and fill-in pieces that don’t shine like the designer stuff.

Field and her team pull vintage pieces from stores such as Frock and Resurrection in New York and accessorize with Stephen Dweck, Alexis Bittar and Yossi Harrari. There is plenty of jewelry tucked neatly away in drawers, belts are coiled up tightly in bags and everything is hung fairly straight. Sizes are written on large tags hanging from garments, including shoe sizes specifically listed as “size in Louboutin,” the shoe of choice on the set.

Field knows that she has to look beyond the clothes, however, and find her “inspiration in the actor. You can’t turn a mouse into an elephant.” Her inspiration is made easier by the cast -- Lucy Liu, Miranda Otto, Frances O’Connor and Bonnie Somerville -- who play women at the top of their game.

Unlike “Sex and the City,” the focus is not on whom they are dating, sleeping with, married to or trying to marry. They are not funky East Village; they are successful and wealthy, spending money on their homes and clothes. They are Power Women.

For Liu’s character, a magazine publisher, Field has accessorized the diminutive actress in big watches and cocktail rings from Vhernier, an Italian jewelry line she discovered while shopping at Saks. “Lucy’s great because she can wear anything,” says Field. “She’s fashion all the way, and we’re putting her in a lot of ‘90s vintage.”

“It’s like ‘80s Nagel,” says Liu. “Pat makes it so over the top that it becomes fresh and modern. She puts me in colors like greens and yellows that I wouldn’t wear in real life. She mixes and matches things and she knows I’m game for it. She knows these characters can say things through their clothes.”

Somerville plays a marketing executive at a cosmetics company and wears a lot of Brian Atwood. She will tell you that she’s vying to get her character into Louboutins, though that may be a long shot. “The pieces I wear are a little bit harder; it’s a lot of Vivienne Westwood and Gucci,” she explains. “It’s funky and urban; she’s a lot more downtown than the others.”

For Otto’s character, the very proper chief operating officer of a hotel chain, Field created a look that would evoke the classic American woman, derived from a particular back story that Field had in her mind. “I said, ‘You are New York, Upper East Side born-and-bred, society set,’ and as a result the direction became a very clean, chic feeling, like Halston, glamorous and sexy.”

O’Connor plays an investment banker who’s trying to juggle her professional and family life. Creating something serious but packed with style, Field followed O’Connor’s mannerisms as a clue for her wardrobe -- “her movements and facial expressions are quick; she’s pixyish,” says Field -- dressing her in pencil skirts with a slightly ‘50s shape and a flared jacket.

Telling a story through clothes, Field believes, only heightens the presence of the characters, and if previous success is any indication, will inspire viewers to stay tuned.

melissa.magsaysay@latimes.com