Carrie Bradshaw's pigeon purse was 'a real Sex and the City accessory moment,' says wardrobe team

For most New Yorkers, pigeons are the stuff of nightmares. For Carrie Bradshaw, they're fashion.

In the new season of And Just Like That, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) ups her purse game yet again by carrying a hyper-realistic pigeon clutch while accompanying Charlotte (Kristin Davis) to the Real Real, a luxury consignment shop. Though the $890 JW Anderson clutch is not practical at all — the wing-shaped opening can't even fit a cell phone — it caused a stir when paparazzi spotted Parker with it during production last year.

"As soon as the paparazzi pictures [of Sarah Jessica holding it] came out, it became like a thing," says AJLT costume designer Danny Santiago. "There was a waiting list, they got sold out. When the series airs this week, it's going to get a lot of attention again. I'm sure people are going to want to have it. It's such a cool little piece."

Cool, yes — but also creepy for anyone who's ever had one of those filthy rats with wings accidentally brush their head while flying past them under a crowded sidewalk scaffolding. (Anyone else? No? Just me?) EW got the full scoop on the origins of Carrie's avian accessory from Santiago and his fellow AJLT costume designer, Molly Rogers.

Where on earth did this pigeon purse come from?

MOLLY ROGERS: Well, Fabien Constant, this wonderful French guy who directed the behind-the-scenes documentary last season, he's a friend of Sarah Jessica's. It was really a fun project and he was always around us. He sent me a picture of himself on Instagram on vacation in Italy and he was carrying it. And I was like, "What is that?" He said, "It's my JW Anderson pigeon purse."

I was over the moon. I had always felt like Carrie had represented Paris with the Eiffel Tower bag in the last season of Sex and the City, but we hadn't really had a real New York bag. We had tote bags, "New York or Nowhere," things like that. And I think I'd seen every apple handbag you can imagine. I was always looking, and when I saw that pigeon, I was like, if that's not a New York City bag, I don't know what is — other than a rat. And I don't think Carrie would carry a rat.

Danny had maybe seen it on the runway, but it was so under the radar, I had not encountered it. We brought it in, they loaned us one, and Sarah Jessica was like, "Gimme that bag!" She was totally into it. It's painted beautifully.

JW ANDERSON; Craig Blankenhorn/Max JW Anderson pigeon clutch; Sarah Jessica Parker in 'And Just Like That'

What is it made of?

DANNY SANTIAGO: It's actually a 3D-printed handbag. You know, JW Anderson is very much into technology and stuff like that. It looks so real. It's so cool how the wing opens up. It looks amazing.

It does look very real, which is why it almost gave me a heart attack when I saw it. For New Yorkers, pigeons are viewed as rats with wings. We don't like them. As a longtime New Yorker, did Sarah Jessica Parker have any qualms about carrying a pigeon?

ROGERS: As a New Yorker, and I consider myself one, when you see someone feeding them, you get enraged. Like, "What are you doing?" But I think she recognized that it was a real Sex and the City accessory moment, and she could work with it. And she knew that it was going to be a lot of fun for people watching. Of course, it was exposed because we shot [that scene] on an exterior location.

In the episode, she really worked it so great because your phone doesn't fit in here. [Holds up the actual pigeon purse] And when she takes the stick of gum out, that's about all that the purse could hold. I thought that was a clever way of saying, this is a really frivolous accessory, but Carrie's so whimsical, she had to.

Was that moment when she pulls the gum out of the purse in the script, or did it get added once AJLT creator Michael Patrick King saw the purse on set?

SANTIAGO: M.P.K. actually hadn't seen that purse at that point. We came out to set and she had it, and of course, everybody lost their minds. We tried to get a jump on the paparazzi. We were taking pictures of it to post on our page prior to [Sarah Jessica] walking out of the trailer because we knew that the instant everybody saw her with this, it was going to go viral.

With Sarah Jessica, she loves to have things in her bag that she can play with [during a scene]. Sometimes it's gum, sometimes it's Mentos. She'll have a magazine or a book inside. It's very practical — like a New Yorker would have her Metrocard or wallet. We always have these things for her to use in her acting if she wants to. The gum was something that she put in there, knowing that she was going to play with the purse and give it its moment.

Max Kristin Davis and Sarah Jessica Parker on 'And Just Like That'

ROGERS: It wasn't scripted. They definitely came up with it on set. That's Sarah Jessica. She is such a good physical comic.

Why was this scene, when Carrie accompanies Charlotte to the Real Deal to track down Lily's dress, the right scene for the pigeon purse to make its debut?

SANTIAGO: The day that we were shooting it, it was a rainy day. Molly had been walking around with that purse for a couple of days prior. She was in love with it. We had it sitting on top of her desk. It became the thing everybody was focused on. Anytime someone walked into the room, everybody was like, "What is that on the table?" We had this outfit [for Carrie] that we had already done. We knew the shoe that she was going to wear. We also were going to feature this Fendi sock with a little mini-baguette that was sewn onto the sock — that was something that we thought was going to look great with the flight suit. At the same time, Sarah Jessica hadn't seen the purse yet, so we had other bags in the room in her trailer to show to her. But the moment that she saw it, it was, "That's it. There's no other. It can't be anything else but that."

ROGERS: I thought it was funny that [she was wearing] a flight suit. You've gotta be quick to catch that. On the 25th anniversary that we just celebrated, we had a small event where we showed a few things from archives. We had the pigeon at this event, and we paired it with a feather shoe.

Molly, are you keeping the purse now?

ROGERS: Well, they loaned her one and they sent me one recently. They said, "Since you're talking about it so much, you probably need to go around on your press tour with it." He's had his moment — or she has. We haven't named her yet. Danny said I should name this pigeon. Maybe it should be Fabien, for the director. I think the pigeon, it's getting a big head. [Laughs]

And Just Like That season 2 is streaming now on Max.

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