Patricia Field dishes on 5 costume design gigs before she got 'Younger'

Though viewers may have swooned over the image of Confessions of a Shopaholic starlet Isla Fischer surrounded by hundreds of shoes, Field considers the shot a fashion-movie cliché. “We already had that joke,” she says.

Darren Star’s television adaptation of Candace Bushnell’s newspaper columns and book brought four New York women to life—and Field and Sarah Jessica Parker into the same closet. “When I work with someone, it’s like going to play tennis,” says Field. “I want to play with a partner that I’m going to have a good game with. Sarah Jessica is very focused. She’s intelligent. And she’s got a plan every minute in her brain.”

Field dressed Meryl Streep in vintage Donna Karan for her role as a domineering editor in The Devil Wears Prada. “I wanted something more classic and not trendy and not looking like [Vogue editor] Anna Wintour,” she says.

Field’s work on the short-lived ABC series Cashmere Mafia reteamed her with Lucy Liu, who had done one episode of SATC. “The Birkin episode,” she says, laughing. “Lucy Liu gets it.”

Betty’s signature specs are “my personal glasses,” Field says. “When we were doing the first fittings I took mine off. America was like, ‘I want to wear them.’ So that was that.”

Four single women in New York City—Field knows what you’re thinking, because she thought it too. But “Younger is different,” she says. Check out this exclusive clip featuring Younger‘s big city style, which draws heavily from Field’s signature mix of downtown cool meets upper-crust chic. And for more of Patricia Field’s thoughts on Sarah Jessica Parker, Lucy Liu, and Anne Hathaway (including who walks the best in heels) pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on sale March 27.