This Styling Trick Makes No Sense–Unless You’re Sarah Jessica Parker

One of my first assignments at British Vogue was to interview Sarah Jessica Parker about how best to care for aging skin. The actor was in town to promote her partnership with RoC skincare, and despite the creeping presence of a PR sat on a neighboring sofa, her responses were refreshingly candid. “I pretty much wash my face old-school style with whatever’s at hand,” she said. “I don’t even buy cleansers. Most days, I just use a bar of soap. I would really use anything!” I nodded and smiled, far more interested in why she had arrived with a necklace caught in the straps of her bra.

I asked, and she replied: “It’s a small gesture that will make everyone think, ‘Yep, that’s her.’ We spend a huge amount of time just wanting to be like everyone else, because we just want to make connections, but it takes such a long time to learn that you can be unique.” Much like her habit of wearing mismatched heels–or captioning Instagram posts with a little “x” despite not being British–it’s a flourish she’s developed as her own. Just this morning, for example, SJP was photographed at the Paris photocall for And Just Like That… with a long, beaded necklace lurching across her chest.

There, she mixed the new with the old: AJLT additions Sarita Choudhury and Nicole Ari Parker alongside former Sex and the City’s co-stars Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon; python knee-highs from a Carrie Bradshaw-inspired Jimmy Choo reissue alongside her now-signature side-slung necklace. Anyone can purchase those shoes, but as Parker told me way back when about clothes: “It’s the small, whimsical things that are often the most nurturing, the choices we make every day that make you feel like you.” SJP gets that fashion isn’t always about spending money–but the kick you get from unlocking and developing and cherishing a relationship with clothing that feels entirely your own.