PLEASE, please, please. Let these be Carrie Bradshaw’s death throes.

The Sex and the City star played by Sarah Jessica Parker seems to be slapped on every billboard, bus stop and shop window in New York this weekend as the city gears up for the release of the SATC film. Her face is so omnipresent, it’s as if 1984’s Big Brother had been restyled by Vogue: “Freedom is Fashion.” It’s always darkest before the dawn.

It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate, it takes strength to be gentle and kind, as Morrissey once sang. But I’m sorry, even Gandhi couldn’t have put up with this.

Parker is an actress who puts the horse in clothes horse. Many moons ago I used to think she was interesting to look at, which is rare in televisionland. Along with Coldplay and Norah Jones, SATC are my axis of evil. These are dark days indeed.

The idea of plastering New York with Parker’s head seems to be to use the film to fire off one last gigantic SATC-themed shop-a-thon. It’s not a bad idea.

Thanks in large part to the success of the show, much of New York has already become a designer theme park with every other shop selling big or tiny — never in between — bags at ridiculous prices. You used to be able to buy meat in the Meatpacking District where SATC star Samantha — the slutty one — lived. Now it’s Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen. Even Samantha would struggle to find sausage.

But for all the hoopla there is no disguising that these are dark days too for handbag merchants big and small. The slump, downturn, recession, or whatever we are calling it this week, is taking its toll.

Wall Streeters are more likely to be shopping for a new job than accessories. The fall of the dollar has led to designer inflation for European goods. I’m reliably informed that the price of a pair of Manolo shoes has doubled in the past few years. New York’s high-end shops increasingly rely on foreigners taking advantage of the weak dollar. Thankfully, they can’t get enough of SATC and there are still plenty of them around, for the moment.

This may be the last chance to milk the SATC industry for all its worth. Everyone is in on the act with shops offering to sell you the shoes, jewels, knickers, sunglasses, drinks and even the cupcakes. By all accounts, the film is one long product placement and all those mentioned are shouting to get their last moment in the sun.

“Find Your Inner Carrie,” urges the sign in the window of Plaza Too, an accessories boutique on Hudson Street in Manhattan conveniently located across the street from a stop on the popular Sex and the City bus tour. Perhaps the tiny star is hiding in a $298 (€191.70) Beirn “Jenna Hobo” handbag?

It does feel like the end of an era. Who knows what’s going to replace all these dinky little bag shops when Carrie’s face is finally plastered over? It may be some time before we see such a flowering in the shopping industry again.

In honour of its passing I too shall be doing my bit this weekend by buying a knock-off copy of the film on Canal Street. Yours for $5.

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