The Clothes of 'Younger': Patricia Field Gives a Tour of the Show's Closet

For Patricia Field, the clothes don’t make the woman — the woman makes the clothes.

The celebrated costume designer and stylist behind Sex and the City is dressing a new New York City show, TV Land’s Younger. Her approach is the same as it’s ever been: Focus on the story, not the stilettos.

You build the look of a show one character at a time. It's about storytelling,” Field told Yahoo TV when we visited the Greenpoint, New York set this past winter.

Of course, the right women to wear those clothes is important, too. Would Sex and the City’s fashion have made such a statement without Sarah Jessica Parker and her castmates? Probably not.

“My job is to work with the actor closely, understand their comfort zones and their ideas, and of course their physical body. And then you find the parallel lines between the actor, who is a real person, and the character, who is fictional,” Field says. “If the casting is good, you will find those parallel lines.”

For Younger, it all starts with the star, Sutton Foster. In the show, Foster plays fortysomething, newly divorced mom Liza, who’s trying to break back into the publishing biz. To get even an entry level job, Liza has to pretend to be a twentysomething.

“Before I met Sutton Foster, it was a little scary for me,” Field admits. “At the end of the day, I'm not a fairy godmother. I don't have a magic wand and — poof! — you turn from a 40-year-old to a 25-year-old.”

But after meeting Foster, “the headache went away,” Field says. “She has a young energy. She can sell it. A miniskirt is not going to sell it.”

Younger airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on TV Land.