The last time Kristin Davis appeared on the front lines of a fashion show – excluding a handful of appearances at Michael Kors, Narciso Rodriguez and Marc Jacobs in the mid-Noughties – she was in the guise of Charlotte York. It was the second episode of Sex And The City’s fourth season, and Charlotte, Miranda, Samantha and Stanford were all invited to witness a pantless Carrie fall – face-first – in front of New York’s fashion cabal. Heidi Klum was directed to literally walk over Carrie’s prostrate body, at which point Stanford memorably yells: “Oh my GOD, she’s fashion roadkill!”.
So it was a moment of perhaps wicked nostalgia when Kristin arrived at Jacquemus’s spring 2024 show this morning – dressed in a medicinal-yellow pantsuit which the current costume designers of And Just Like That would do well to pull. Having already starred in the brand’s teaser trailer – in which she does not play Charlotte but does maniacally iron and fold a Merino knit sweater – it is the first time in recent memory that Davis has received a high fashion co-sign. And it’s about time: Charlotte’s timeless Upper East Side aesthetic is just begging to gain purchase on all of Carrie’s babetastic Y2K-isms.
What a thrill to see Jacquemus endorse the sweet, sweet Kristin Davis alongside Kylie Jenner and Stormi and PinkPantheress and Julia Roberts. It also happened to be one of the designer’s most successful collections in recent seasons: a return to the naïve and geometric silhouettes of his earlier work, with Gigi Hadid, EmRata, Amelia Gray and Mona Tougaard dressed in big swooping arcs inspired by the sculptures of Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti, Hans Hartung and Anna-Eva Bergman. I’m sure Charlotte York would have patronised at least one of those artists during her time as an ascendant gallerina. The show notes could have read: “I’m pretty and I’m smart. I’m a catch."