'Sexy and the City' is gone but the fashion malady lingers

Emma Spedding interrogates the new 'Sex and the City' Instagram account

The final episode of Sex and the City aired in February 2004, and everything, from the sugary cosmopolitans to Carrie Bradshaw claiming that bisexuality is a myth, is painfully outdated.

But despite the many jarring problems with the 94 episodes and two films, thousands of us still can't let it go. As if we hadn't learned from Sex and the City 2, we are still clinging onto Carrie's Manolos and trying to drag even more out of the franchise.

The latest development isn't an announcement about SATC3, but the arrival of an Instagram account chronicling every single outfit worn by Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda.

The @everyoutfitonsatc page has had a rapid spike in followers since it launched, gaining close to 100K followers in the first two weeks and prompting many (slightly hysterical) global news stories.

Fashion was of course a priority for the show, with Carrie investing in stilettos instead of stocks and storing sweaters in an oven that had never been switched on.

Patricia Field's costumes became the fifth, equally outspoken, character in the show, as the stylist explains: "I think it really impacted on the way women felt and behaved as well as dressed - with self-esteem and confidence."

While anyone who watched the series will remember the Carrie necklace, her considered Paris wardrobe, the pink tutu from the opening credits and her shoe collection, this Instagram page shows that there were some bleaker outfits in the Sex and the City wardrobe department that we've glossed over.

Bear in mind, Carrie almost broke up with a boyfriend over his suggestion that a New York woman would wear a scrunchy anywhere outside the bathroom.

The worst screen grabs on @everyoutfitonsatc include Carrie wearing a pink shirt tied up as a crop top with a lime green belt resting on her bare abs, and the pink cowboy hat and bandeau crop top she wore to (a non-fancy dress) July 4 party. A styling trick far worse than a scrunchy was Carrie pairing golfer-style knee socks with peep-toe champagne stilettos.

One of the main reasons we started the account was to archive not just the iconic looks, but the more esoteric ensembles that we find way more interesting

"She is not someone who actually exists in the real world, but her persona is built around the idea of a fashionista and therefore her wardrobe is taken to these wonderfully preposterous heights," said Lauren Garroni, one of the creators of the Instagram account.

"Also Carrie was the first character I can remember who mixed high fashion with vintage and tchotchkes. It was attainable and not at the same time."

The one who fares surprisingly well in this flashback so far is Miranda, who was largely considered the least stylish of the four, wearing badly cut boxy suits.

She is perhaps the most 2016 in Jil Sander grey tailoring, black cocktail dresses and a Vetements-esque denim dungarees and puffer coat which is so "bad", it works.

"One of the main reasons we started the account was to archive not just the iconic looks, but the more esoteric ensembles that we find way more interesting," said Lauren Garroni.

"Charlotte and Samantha's looks are pretty constant and on-brand. Carrie's thing is her style is inconsistent. But Miranda, I'm not sure Patricia Fields knew what to do with her, so her looks and style evolved the most."

But Carrie wearing a luminous belt around her bare ribs is exactly why the fashion in Sex and the City was so inspired. Because it wasn't just glossy and expensive, it was different from anything else we'd seen anyone wear before - in TV and real life.

Carrie was from the Man Repeller school of "wearing whatever the hell you want", rather than wearing Gucci loafers just because everybody else is.

Leandra Medine wrote earlier this year about Carrie's relationship with fashion: "Her style, so mangled and fascinating and thrilling to look at and yet simultaneously so alienating (it would never work the same way on you or me), wasn't just style. It was thoughtful. And I wonder - is this the defining adjective that truly informs personal style?"

As for the green belt, Leandra said: "But the thing is, style does not concern itself with a specific moment in time ... no one knows if that outfit was determined in 1999 or 2016. And that's because she lives the look."

And it's a look that 20 years later can still create a strong reaction.

So perhaps we should celebrate the costumes that we can never, ever imagine wearing, rather than scrolling through @everyoutfitonsatc hunting for outfits that we can recreate in 2016, because the point wasn't to dress like Carrie Bradshaw, even in 1998.

- The Daily Telegraph