Carrie Bradshaw de “Sex and the City” existe… y se llama Candace Bushnell

In the 1990s, while Vogue covers dictated trends and the catwalk was filled with names like Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, a fictional character became one of the biggest style influences of the era: Carrie Bradshaw. But behind her Manolos, her sex columns and her walks through Manhattan, there was a real woman. And she didn’t live on a film set, but in the heart of the New York scene: Candace Bushnell.

Candace Bushnell was born in 1958 in Glastonbury, Connecticut. At the age of 19, she moved to New York with a suitcase, few savings, and a fierce determination to write. Her first major job came at the New York Observer, where in 1994 she began a weekly column called Sex and the City. In it, Bushnell poured out her own experiences and those of her circle: failed dates, complex relationships, endless nights and a sharp—and sometimes uncomfortable—view of romantic life in Manhattan.

While Sarah Jessica Parker brought Carrie Bradshaw to life on screen, much of her personality, style and environment were directly inspired by Bushnell. Like Carrie, Candace lived alone in a small flat, spent much of her income on fashion and shoes, and frequented restaurants and clubs that are now part of the New York City landscape of the 1990s. The pages of her column became a mirror of urban life for a single woman with ambitions but no clear roadmap.

In 1996, Sex and the City was published as a book. Producer Darren Star acquired the rights, and in 1998 HBO premiered the series that would forever change the representation of women on television. Although Bushnell did not actively participate in the scripts, her voice remained the soul of the story. Carrie Bradshaw was her alter ego: a stylised filter of her experiences, exaggerated for fiction, but anchored in her reality.

Bushnell understood fashion as a language. During her youth, she shopped at flea markets and second-hand stores, but when her career took off, she began frequenting boutiques and designers. Bushnell was an active part of the New York scene. She attended fashion shows and rubbed shoulders with editors and designers. But she also experienced the other side: social pressure, loneliness, doubt. That contrast is what gave her character authenticity.

After the television phenomenon, Bushnell continued writing novels such as Trading Up, Lipstick Jungle, and The Carrie Diaries—the latter a prequel exploring the character’s youth and also made it to the screen. Although she was always associated with her most famous creation, her literary career and influence on the discourse on women, sex, and the city are undeniable.

I know you’re wondering: If Candace Bushnell and Carrie Bradshaw have so much in common, did Mr. Big also exist? Yes, Mr. Big is actually Ron Galotti, a publishing entrepreneur whom Bushnell met in Manhattan. And you, did you know the real Carrie Bradshaw?

Today, Candace Bushnell still lives in New York, and although she maintains her distance from the series, she recognizes that Carrie Bradshaw was a vehicle for giving voice to a generation of women who didn’t see themselves reflected in fiction. Her life and work are proof that sometimes the most iconic characters aren’t born from a script, but from the raw, real experience of someone who knew how to tell it with style.

La Manso reinterprets the Vetements necklace that Carrie Bradshaw wears in “And Just Like That.”