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BA Communications and Liberal Studies, Brock University, St. Catharines Ontario, Canada; MA Communications, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; 2nd year PhD student, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, Scotland
A comparative discussion paper on the narrative function of fashion custom and trend in New York City, as represented in Edith Wharton's novel "The Age of Innocence" and the television series "Sex and the City". Wharton perfectly captures the meaning of fashion in 1880's New York: "The religious reverence of even the most unworldly American women for the social advantage of dress. It's their armour, he thought, their defence against the unknown, and their defiance of it." (Wharton, 198) Fashion in The Age of Innocence always means something, and is expertly interpreted by every member of society.
Sex and the City, the television series known for its racy content and trend-setting style, does much the same thing, in a visual medium. Sex and the City's narrative often revolves around the symbolic meaning of accessories, particularly designer shoes and handbags. These items function as talismans and metaphors, transcending the status of prop or costume. Fendi bags and Manolo Blahnik shoes are as much a part of what Wharton calls the "hieroglyphic world" of society, as Worth gowns. Wharton's Manhattan is a rarified world both socially and geographically, and so is the Manhattan of Sex and the City. The image of New York City as a center of fashion and social power is illustrated in both texts.
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