Heights of Fame

Needed--a beautiful, brainy woman with a sense of humor and an appreciation for irony to illustrate how hyper-feminine, sexy clothes can be worn in a non-bimboish way. Appropriate candidate will be enclosed in a time capsule.

Sarah Jessica Parker could volunteer as the personification of fin de siecle girlstyle. Of course her husband, actor Matthew Broderick, and others to whom she is dear would undoubtedly miss her, were she spirited away for the edification of future generations. So would the cultish followers of “Sex and the City,” who wait for each new episode of the HBO series as if they were gasping on Mt. Everest for an infusion of oxygen.

When clothes appear on designers’ runways that are very sheer, or are cut so narrowly that they demand to be worn by a fat-deficient body, they often give rise to questions: Where on earth would someone wear that, and who could possibly look good in it besides a model? The answer to the latter is Parker, despite the fact that, at 5 feet, 3 3/4 inches, she is considerly shorter than most women who wear clothes for a living. And she has no shortage of both fictional and real world destinations for her stylish flights of fancy. For one thing, she gets to wear clothes that flirt with the outrageous when she sits in David Letterman’s chair, lounges on “The View” couch or perches on Regis and Kathie Lee’s stools.

Parker was last on the talk-show circuit to promote the second season of “Sex and the City,” which began in June. She says, “We had already been shooting for several months, so my head was into work at that point.” So Parker was dressing more like her character than herself. “Since doing that show, I find I wear more bright colors than I used to. I don’t dress nearly as flashy as my character does, that is wearing clothes that are meant to get attention, but I have been influenced somewhat.”

Carrie Bradshaw, the intrepid sex columnist in “Sex and the City,” has a wardrobe that knows no bounds. Does any single woman in New York get as much action as the show’s eager quartet of bachelorettes? Does any real woman dare zoom around Gotham wearing belly-baring pedal pushers and a shrunken men’s undershirt? Or walk those mean streets in stilettos?

“I love Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo,” Parker says. “I’ve so destroyed my feet from wearing them that I think I’m immune to the pain.” Recently the actress was being fitted for her next big screen project, “State & Main,” which David Mamet wrote and will direct. The costume designer asked if Parker could walk in very high heels. Her reply: “I could run a marathon in high heels.”

Bright colors and towering heels are hallmarks of the “Sex and the City” look. Other recurring motifs are full-skirted ‘50s sundresses, ruffled camisoles and pencil skirts and the artful mix of old and new clothes, the groovy with the corny. Carrie’s idea of date wear might be short shorts from the Gap, a thrift-store peasant blouse and high Prada pumps. Costume designers Patricia and Rebecca Field want Carrie and her friends to be ahead of the curve, thus slinky slip dresses, now commonplace throughout the country, are less favored on the show than a vintage cocktail dress or fringed poncho.

The show’s shoe fetish has given way to more Fendi bags per episode than you can shake a trust fund at. “Fendi lends us the Baguette bags and, considering how many of them Carrie seems to have, we’re definitely in the realm of suspension of disbelief,” Parker says. “Every time I put one on my shoulder in a scene, I’m thinking that I don’t really want anyone to notice that there’s no way Carrie could afford one, much less four of them. But they’re all different, and they’re so beautiful that I’m also thinking that I want people to notice how extraordinary they are.”

Some girls you just can’t hate, even if they buy the bag of the moment instead of pay rent. Madonna could wear thigh-high animal-print boots and a transparent dress and she’d look like someone you’d cross the street to avoid. But Parker pulls off what could be scary or ridiculous on someone else. Parker, and the role for which she was nominated for an Emmy, are adorable without being cloying. With a surplus of wit, likability and intelligence, she changes the way we look at clothes. Even for an actress, that is no small feat.

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Styled by Lisa Michelle/Artist Group Management; hair: Anne Morgan; makeup: Jeanine Lobell for Stila; fashion assistant: Marushka Garcia