YOU WOULDN'T MISS Patricia Field in a crowd. She's wearing a hot-pink bandana over her hot-pink hair - and she's got a great pair of legs.
'It's hard to describe one's own style, but I'll give it a shot,' says the costume designer and stylist. 'I think that it looks colourful and theatrical. It's glamorous, sexy, and young. Simply, it's the Patricia Field style.'
The look has worked wonders for Field, who was costume designer for the television series Sex and the City from 1998 to 2004, singlehandedly creating a look that would be copied by Carrie Bradshaw wannabes worldwide.
'The show was definitely a boost in my career, but not everyone thought so,' she says, laughing. 'At the end of the series, I asked the girls to rate the wardrobe fittings from one to 10. Sarah Jessica Parker gave it a 10 or 12, but Cynthia [Nixon] gave me a six.
'Regardless of what people say, I look at it like a game of poker: you get a hand and if you're lucky, you win. I had a great show and great characters. I just brought another element to it. It was the greatest thing that happened to my career, but I didn't feel like my life was hinging on the success or failure of the show. Its success was an added bonus.'
Success is something that has come easily to Field during her 40-year fashion career. The daughter of European immigrants, she was the first American-born generation in her family and grew up in New York, studying liberal arts at New York University (NYU) in the late 1950s and early 60s. Her family were retailers and she chose a similar field, working in a department store after college. In 1966, she opened an eponymous boutique catering to young, trendy fashionistas.