Remote-control fashion

Fashion-savvy TV characters are walking ads for fine clothing

It used to be Carrie Bradshaw who inspired Kim Watson.

After Carrie all but killed the hair scrunchie during the Jack Berger season on "Sex and the City," Watson ditched all of hers. She started rolling up her designer jeans again after she saw Carrie do it in one episode. And she was schooled in the world of Manolo Blahnik thanks to Carrie's love affair with the designer shoe line.

With Carrie gone from her life (except on reruns), Watson now has Victory Ford.

"I love watching 'Lipstick Jungle,'" says the 32-year-old self-described fashion junkie, who lives in Durham. "It's not quite the same as 'Sex and the City,' but I still feel that I'm getting a sense of what's current in fashion."

After several years on hiatus, TV's influence on fashion has come roaring back. Some might even argue it's stronger than ever, led mostly by the designer clothes, shoes, jewelry and bags on the TV shows "Lipstick Jungle" and "Gossip Girl."

"I would wear anything that Victory Ford has," says Kristen Bishop, who owns the Chapel Hill boutique Lucky Mi.

"She has such a great style on the show. She's always wearing a dress, no matter what she's doing. That's how I want to dress."

The fictional fashionista on NBC's "Lipstick Jungle," a drama about three 30-something, career-driven women in Manhattan, wears Valentino pumps, Theory sweaters, Kenneth Jay Lane cocktail rings and J Brand jeans.

Her style is sexy and sassy and always situation-appropriate, whether it's a cocktail party or crying at home over lost love with her friends. What's even more appealing is that Victory's look, like that of the show's other two characters, Nico Reilly and Wendy Healy, is always on-trend and age appropriate.

While Watson can't always afford those pieces, she takes inspiration from the show.

"I've started wearing brooches again because I see Victory doing it all the time," she says.

Ashley Vermillion Harris, owner of Vermillion, says the influence of the shows has become just as important to the fashion industry as the celebrity-driven magazines US Weekly and People. Shoppers see a favorite character or celebrity wearing something new or different, and they want the same piece -- or at least a piece that has the same look or brand name.

"You really do see a boom in fashion when a really fun show or movie comes out," she says.

She saw the bounce after "The Devil Wears Prada" was released. Then again with the "Sex and the City" movie. Most recently, the industry has felt the effects of the DVD release of the "Sex and the City" movie.

It all gives a boost to her store, which carries a number of pieces that are regularly on shows.

Earlier in the season on the CW's "Gossip Girl," a show about the teenage lives of Manhattan's Upper East Side, a character was chastised for wearing last season's Tory Burch flats. Vermillion carries the latest version of the flats.

Recently on "The Hills," MTV's pseudo-reality show about the lives of 20-somethings in Los Angeles, Lo Bosworth wore an Aris Geldis necklace, a new jewelry line being carried at Vermillion.

Other stores are seeing the same trend. Julie Jennings, who owns Uniquities, was watching "Lipstick Jungle" recently and saw Victory in a floral cashmere vest that she carries at her Uniquities Mix store in North Hills.

And one of the Uniquities buyers, Amy Curran, can rattle off a list of designer goods that Uniquities stocks that have been on "Gossip Girl," from Rebecca Minkoff and Foley + Corinna handbags, to designer clothes by Catherine Malandrino, Nanette Lepore, Milly and Alberta Ferretti.