Actress, wife, mother, producer, fragrance mogul and shoe designer: Sarah Jessica Parker is living her very own fairy tale in New York. As she launches her namesake shoe line on Net-a-porter, she invites The Edit to spend a day with her in the city she loves.
“When I Arrived In New York City In 1976, the first thing I did was audition for a play. Literally straight out of the van. My [step] father slid the Volkswagen bus door open and said, ‘See you later.’ We lived in Ohio and, because we couldn’t afford to fly to New York, we would drive. The route my parents took crossed over the George Washington Bridge, heading east into Manhattan, and about midway across, you could look south and see this view down the Hudson River with all of Manhattan laid before you, like someone had rolled it out. And we would always sing – I don’t know why because it makes no sense – ‘My Bonnie lies over the ocean / My Bonnie lies over the sea...’ I can’t really convey how sweeping and cinematic that moment was.”
“My Family And I Had Been To New York A Few Times because my [biological] father lived there, and it was always memorable. But I remember one summer, we came back home to Cincinnati and we were at my grandparents’ swim club, where my brother Toby and I were both on the diving team. I was jumping on the board and I turned to Toby and said, ‘I can’t believe we were in New York City just yesterday!’ I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And I still think about the city that way. I suppose it’s a little bit like when you can’t believe that you don’t have to go to school anymore. It’s not like the city is without its flaws and faults; I mean, there are big problems. And it’s not the city that promises everything anymore, it can’t be. People don’t come to New York and live as a ballet dancer or an artist or a writer, or an engineer or an architect or a teacher – they can’t. I mean, they can’t [afford to] live in Brooklyn, you know? There is no place to pioneer anymore, and that’s a real problem. So in terms of that promise, coming here to live your dream, I would say that’s extinct in some ways. But the relationship that you can have with the city, its uniqueness, hasn’t changed. I don’t think New York is always pretty. It’s not as old as London – it doesn’t have as many important buildings, we didn’t keep things, we didn’t cherish or protect landmarks – so we don’t have all that beauty, nor do we have the history. But there is something. It has a sparkle.”
“I Can’T Imagine Living Anywhere Else. I mean, Matthew [Broderick, Parker’s husband of nearly 20 years] and I think about it, we look [around], and we just don’t do it. We stay. I used to think we were selfish, but when we came back to New York after the summer break this year I asked my daughters, ‘Would you prefer it if we had more space?’ And they said, ‘No!’”
“One Of My Most Memorable Moments In New York was the opening night of The Producers [the 2001 Broadway musical in which Broderick starred]. It wasn’t just any successful Broadway opening – it was one of those nights where you could look back and say, ‘I was there.’ Eventually I had to go home because I was shooting Sex and the City in the morning. It was like, ‘I have to be up in seven hours...in six hours...in five hours...in four hours...’ Finally, Matthew put me in a car. I got in and there was a newspaper with a photograph of Matthew and I on the front page: ‘The Producers has opened on Broadway!’ The streets were quiet – it was very late, two or three in the morning by this point – and the city looked just like it should. I was going down Broadway in this car, going home to a job I loved, and I was just like, ‘Wow, this is definitely special! This couldn’t have happened anywhere else and it won’t happen again.’”
“Equally Memorable, But A Completely Different Feeling, was September 11, 2001, going up half a block to our local firehouse. Being so close [to the World Trade Center], they were called in, of course. I remember that Matthew just couldn’t function, literally. He was born and raised in New York and he is very romantic about the city, paying close attention to every shop that shuts down. So for him, who is sentimental in very quiet ways, it was the most personal experience that I’ve ever seen him really have. It was scary and hard for everybody, but to feel that loss, his firehouse... To me, that is a very vivid memory [of the city] because it’s not a happy one; it’s not beautiful and sparkly.”
“I Wish I Had Known To Take More Pictures. I should have photographed every fitting of Sex and the City; every shoe I ever tried on anywhere in the world, ever! I should have shot those experiences, but I didn’t want to intrude on it or ask, ‘Do you mind if I take your picture?’ Or, ‘Do you mind if I document this?’ Oh, I should have taken more pictures.”
“I Started Sjp By Sarah Jessica Parker Because this conversation about me doing a shoe line kept circling round and round. A few people were asking me [to collaborate]. Some were big, mass licensing deals and some were smaller, but it was all very intriguing and flattering and lucrative. It was hard for everybody to understand why I wasn’t saying yes. I didn’t understand myself! But then I met with these two women whom I really admire in business, and they were like, ‘Well, what do you want?’ I said, ‘I really want to make shoes with George Malkemus Iii [ceo of Manolo Blahnik], but he’s spoken for.’ And they said, ‘Just ask; the worst he can say is no.’ So I went straight home and went outside in the backyard and called George. I said, ‘I know this is a crazy long shot, but would you ever consider producing a shoe line with me?’ And he replied, ‘Be at my office tomorrow morning at 9am.’”
“I Would Love To Be Able To Offer A Woman A $69 Pair Of Shoes, but those are never going to last her. The heels are going to break, and they’re going to be made under conditions that I would feel really lousy about. How could I ask anybody for their hard-earned dollars, even $69, if they would have to replace the shoes in two months anyway? So George said we are going to make our shoes in Italy, the way shoes should be made. We are going to go to Tuscany, to fourth- and fifth- generation shoemakers, and we’re going to find a way to make a shoe for $395. Now, that isn’t accessible for a lot of people, that’s out of touch, but I couldn’t give them a $69 shoe that would break.”
“I Will Only Buy Second- hand Clothes For My Son, James Wilkie. The documentary The True Cost [which explores the impact of fashion on people and the planet] really changed me. The one area I’ve had a hard time with is pants, but I buy used T-shirts and sweaters for him. Track pants are hard – boys rip them; I don’t know how to get around that.”
“If I Could Revisit One Moment In My Life, it would be the birth of my children, definitely. I only got to give birth once [Parker’s twin girls, Marion Loretta and Tabitha Hodge, now seven, were born via a surrogate]. James is like, why do you always want to talk about that?! I’m like, because it’s the greatest! There is this suspended animation around [birth]: everything goes away; the entire world is sucked up; time suspends. It’s just you and, in my case, my husband, and this child, and it’s absolute euphoria.”
“fashion Makes Me Feel Like The Other Version Of Myself, like my Sunday best. Just putting stuff on creates a feeling so specific and different than every day. Anytime you are in a fitting, it’s very much about you becoming something else, and sometimes it’s a familiar place, but sometimes it’s completely pretend. I think a lot of other women want to feel that. Sometimes I’ll be working on a shop floor and I’ll see a customer trying on a nude pair of the classic Sjp ‘Fawn’ pumps, and the conversation will go like this:
Me: ‘Did you see the purple version of those?’
Customer: ‘Oh no, I couldn’t wear those.’
Me: ‘But do you want to wear them?’
Customer: ‘Of course I want to, but I can’t wear them to work.’
Me: ‘Why not?’
Customer: ‘I don’t know.’
Me: ‘Is your brain going to function any less well if you are wearing a purple shoe?’
Customer: ‘No.’
Me: ‘Are you any less capable if you are wearing a purple shoe?
Customer: ‘No.’
Me: ‘Are you afraid that people will think you are less capable?’
Customer: ‘Kind of. I mean, I work in a conservative place.”
Me: ‘Do any of your [male] colleagues wear a purple tie every now and again?’
Customer: ‘Yeah.’
Me: ‘Do you think any less of them? Do you think that they are not taking their job seriously?’
Customer: ‘No.’
Me: ‘Do you want to try the purple shoe?’
Customer: ‘Of course I want to try the purple shoe! Give me the purple shoe!’”
