Carrie Bradshaw’s Upcycled Met Gala Wedding Dress Includes a Hidden Detail Fans Missed

If the first two episodes of And Just Like That ... are any indication, fans are in for plenty of bold fashion moments in the weeks ahead. The series' second season premiered on June 22, featuring a cacophony of style throwbacks, Met Gala gowns, wardrobe malfunctions, and meticulous details — and we'd expect no less from costume designers Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago.

After all, these are the minds behind Carrie's heartbreaking shoe throwback and controversial prairie dress in 2021. And this season's outfit choices are turning out to be no less thoughtful — including the biggest fashion moment from the first episode: Carrie's Met Gala fiasco.

In case you missed it (spoiler alert), Carrie works with a young designer named Smoke, who is also her podcast co-host Jackie Nee's love interest, to create a custom, Bradshaw-worthy gown and matching cape for the ball. But when things go awry thanks to a sick seamstress and an intense time crunch, the two characters have to scramble and pull out something from Carrie's considerable fashion archive.

The resulting ensemble includes a bespoke turquoise cape paired with the iconic bird hat and Vivienne Westwood wedding dress that Carrie previously wore to her first (albeit unsuccessful) wedding to Mr. Big. (Yes, that one.) And while re-wearing the white gown that saw you left at the altar might seem like bad luck, in Carrie's case, it acts as a proper bookend to her life with Big — closure, if you will.

"It was already in the script," explains Molly Rogers, the lead costume designer on And Just Like That ... on how Carrie's upcycled Met Gala moment came about. After reading the scene, all that was left was to pull the original pieces from the show's archive (the gown was apparently in "terrible shape" and had to be refurbished) and add a few final touches, including a surprising Easter egg for fans.

Despite the widely circulated set photos from the scene that made the rounds last November, the costume designers managed to sneak in a special detail that fans missed. "So far, nobody's noticed that when Carrie comes down the stoop, we did something on the Vivienne Westwood Met Gala outfit," says Rogers.

"When they are trying to fix the Smoke gown, you know, and they're all sewing it and trying to fix it. There's a sewing pin cushion on someone's wrist," she explains, adding, "I just thought it would be really fun if Carrie took that part of Smoke's creation and wore that pin cushion as a bracelet."

Sarah Jessica Parker loved the idea, and the rest, as they say, is TV history. "SJP was into it, putting it on over the glove. And so, we had probably 20 pin cushions to choose from, and that one [we chose] was from Japan."