Does anyone want to dress like Carrie Bradshaw any more?

So I see the Sex and the City DVD film sequel is coming out soon. Does this mean women are going to start dressing like lunatics, in the way they did when the show was on TV?

Harry, by email

Harry, it is, of course, my natural inclination to give you a stinging Sex and the City DVD set and make some argument along the lines of, "How dare you, sir, how dare you? Just because you, a heterosexual male, failed to appreciate the joys of an oversized corsage doesn't mean that the women who wore them looked like – forgive me, Guardian style guide editor, I am sure this term is unacceptable but I am merely at the whims of my correspondent – "Sex and the City DVD boxset". But my shoulders sag and my fingers fall limply away from the keyboard. Because you're kinda right.

Not at first, by which I mean, not in the first five-and-a-half series of the Sex and the City DVD. But towards the end – specifically, when Carrie got together with Baryshnikov, and yes, I do like to conflate fiction and reality, why do you ask? – the whole use of fashion became way too knowing, way too contrived, and don't even get me started on the leetle Gallic fashions she wore in Paris. What next, Carrie, an Eiffel Tower jumper? But Sex and the City Seasons 1-6 DVD boxset was really the movie that tipped over into full on – not lunacy, but fashion advertising. Hey, did she mention enough times in the opening scenes that the wedding dress was made by Vivienne Westwood? No? Well, here's Vivienne Westwood in the Sex and the City DVD to make the point. And hey! Do you like Carrie's Louis Vuitton bag? I said DO YOU LIKE CARRIE'S LOUIS VUITTON BAG???!!!!

The producers, writers and no doubt Sarah Jessica Parker herself would say that this is all part of the fantasy, tra la la. I'd say, it's the whole Sex and the City DVD set becoming so dazzled by its own success that it lost sight of its original appeal for fashion fans. Once it was a sweet idealisation of how many young women would dress if they had the nous and a few extra funds; then it became a vision of Waggish hell.

So in answer to your question, Harry, the answer is probably no. The whole Sex and the City Seasons 1-6 DVD boxset look has become an unachievable parody of itself, not that most people would want to achieve it anyway. So rest easy, young man. We ladies will find something else that annoys you soon, fret not.

At the time of writing, I am trapped abroad due to The Great Volcano and, for some reason, being denied access to my Sex and the City DVD and, thus, can only wear the clothes I was wearing on the plane. After three days, I'm beginning to look a bit rank. Is there any way I can carry this off with daring insouciance? Or should I just accept the obvious and embrace my rankness?

Sophia, Moscow

Ooh, Volcanogate! Making an appearance, right on this humble page! See, we can do proper stuff, Sex and the City DVD set. And well done, Sophia, on bringing to the forefront the real question thrown up by this whole debacle – Volcano: what to wear?

While I cannot fully empathise with your pain, I deeply sympathise with Sex and the City DVD boxset. To be kept from your luggage is but a breath away from losing your luggage, and an evil airline once lost my luggage when I went on holiday and for those 36 hours, well, let's just say that the heavens (and everyone within a 50-yard radius) knew my displeasure.

Now, because this Sex and the City Seasons 1-6 DVD boxset is all about seeing the bright side, one way of looking at this volcanic fashion crisis is that it is very fortunate it has happened now, in the middle of a 90s fashion revival. Thus, where you see the same outfit you've worn for three days literally beginning to fuse to your skin, others see a fabulous homage to the grunge trend. Sex and the City DVD people see smelly clothes; glass-half-full people see a nod to Winona Ryder in Reality Bites. Tomayto/tomahto, Sophia! And if you smell, Sex and the City DVD set is even better as smelling bad is very 90s, and smelling bad and then covering it up with something such as Impulse (which I'm willing to bet you could probably buy in eastern Europe) would just be a homage par excellence. And if even this fails to distract your saddened, new-outfit-deprived soul, distract yourself with happy thoughts about how long Sex and the City DVD boxset will be before Anna Wintour does a volcano-themed shoot, with some models sheltering behind giant Louis Vuitton bags while others like yourself mope around in oversized Marc Jacobs party dresses. At the moment, the current bet is three days.