The Lingerie Trend Sarah Jessica Parker Never Stopped Wearing

It's hard not to instinctually think Carrie Bradshaw when you think Sarah Jessica Parker. While her Sex and the City character was exactly that—a character—there are undeniable similarities between the star and the TV persona… at least to us onlookers. During a roundtable discussion with SJP while on a trip to Verona, Italy, with the lingerie brand Intimissimi, I got an exclusive glimpse into the way Parker really feels about her intimate association with the role she played years ago.

"There's sort of a fuzzy line between characters I've played and, obviously, primarily Carrie Bradshaw and myself. We're very different. I always say we look alike, but basically, everything else is different," explained Parker. Everything, that is, except for one very iconic lingerie trend that just so happens to be resurfacing: wearing lingerie as outerwear.

As the face of Intimissimi's new campaign, Sarah Jessica Parker has recently experimented with and embraced a handful of fresh lingerie styles, but wearing lingerie as outerwear is apparently a trend she's been following for years, both on her own and on camera as Carrie Bradshaw.

"I wouldn't necessarily dress how Carrie Bradshaw would, but it was fun to be bold in this campaign," she said, "especially on those streets because I do walk my kids to school on those streets, and I don't typically wear pajamas slightly open when I'm walking my children to school, so it was kind of fun."

When asked about her opinions on the overwhelming presence of the trend in Italy and the United States, Parker replied with this: "I'm so happy [this trend is back], because I never stopped wearing it. If there's one thing that we did that overlapped with me and that character of Carrie—and Pat Field, who was our brilliant costume designer and is an extraordinarily creative mind, she too—we just did that. And she was so happy that that was something that I wanted to do, and I was so thrilled it was something she wanted to do. And so I'm liberated by it being back. For me, it never left, so I feel delighted. But, everybody has their own version of that, and everybody's different, and everybody's body is different, and everybody's figure is different, and so people should do what they want."

Ahead, go on to read a few more quotes from the style icon herself and to shop some Intimissimi products SJP wore during in the campaign.

"The easiest thing to say [about how lingerie is connected to female empowerment] is choice: how you choose to walk out the door, what you're trying to say about yourself. In the best of all possible worlds, it should be your choice," she said. "I think this campaign is about feeling confident telling somebody who you are and encouraging others and remembering yourself not to judge people. You can call it empowerment in that message or you can call it a call to arms in confidence in some way, so I think that's hopefully the connection. That's what I took from it."

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"I make choices that feel like me," Parker says. "I try not to let outside influence really play a role in those choices. I'm a mother, so sometimes it's just getting out the door. I live in New York, it's winter, you've got to get kids to school, I have to get them dressed, you're walking a lot, you're on the subway, you're running for a cab—you dress for your life, and those choices have always been my own."

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"The item that's been indispensable in my wardrobe is a black bra," Parker said. "No joke."

Shop more lingerie pieces you can wear as outerwear:

Next up, find out what the main differences are between American and Italian lingerie.