Photos: Sex and the city of Dubai, Sarah Jessica Parker launches shoe line here

It’s been 16 years since the world was first introduced to Carrie Bradshaw, the shoe-obsessed fashionista immortalised by Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City. The award-winning series has long completed its run and the last feature film it spawned, Sex and the City 2, was released in 2010.
So why did Parker, whose famous character once called her shoe obsession her ‘substance abuse problem’, take so long to cash in on that phenomenon?
“I was just waiting for the right partner,” says Parker, 49, who’s in Dubai to launch the SJP Collection, her shoe label named after her initials, and meet fans at Harvey Nichols and Bloomingdale’s. “A lot of people, for a number of years, have been very generous and offered a lot of opportunities. But I wanted to create a collection that was well made, that was going to be relevant in the closet for many years.”

SJP in Harvey Nichols, Mall of the Emirates, Dubai.

Parker has partnered with Manolo Blahnik CEO George Malkemus III for the three-piece collection.

“A lot of partners who were smart and successful wanted me to create a mass collection. But to do that, I felt [it was] a betrayal of some kind. Creating a shoe for $49 [Dh179] or $69 is a great idea, but how long will it last, what will the quality be and what’s the comfort and most importantly, would I wear it? And if I’m not enthusiastic and excited about the collection, then who am I to ask anyone else for their hard-earned dirham?

“So when I finally had the courage to pick up the phone and call George, I knew I found the right partner. He wanted the same thing. I wanted to invest in a single sole, which was not in fashion when I first started thinking about the collection, and really dedicate the idea, with the colours as neutral and with a single sole like the good old days.”

Starting at Dh1,200, the UAE and Kuwait are the first international markets to hold the SJP Collection outside of the US and Canada.

“We chose the UAE for a lot of reasons,” explains Parker. “It has a very sophisticated population with a strong relationship with fashion and shoes. Consumers here are smart, have great taste and have strong feelings about quality and we felt that we wanted to meet those challenges.

“Dubai and the Middle East hadn’t been necessarily on top of our list for international expansion. But it’s been in many ways fortuitous because the partner that approached us is well entrenched. They understood the market and the consumers here and we found them to be really smart. I think it has set the bar really high for other territories and it’s good for us to have that expectation that has been created by Dubai.”

In Bloomingdales, Dubai