Sports Calendar

She worries that, given how much time her daughters are on set, they, too, might want to be actresses some day. But Shields has her rules: “First, an education — that’s non-negotiable. I’ve learnt the importance of university myself. Unlike a TV role, nobody can take it away from you.” Shields has also begun talks to develop her own, original Broadway production. It’s serious stuff for a model-turned-actress. But, then again, Shields is anything but typical. “If I’m claiming I want to be one of these strong, powerful women, then I have to get out and do it,” she says. “I need to prove it to myself.”

Lipstick Jungle is on Living from September

Candace Bushnell on lipstick, ambition and women

When I started writing Sex and the City in 1994, there weren’t supposed to be any single women in their thirties. If you were single in your thirties, everybody thought there was something really wrong with you. The series captured the life of a marginalised woman.

Again, Lipstick Jungle — an advertising- industry term from the 1950s, when cosmetics was one of the only areas in which women could succeed — comes out of the lives of successful women in their forties, girls next door made good, who work really hard, but who also have children. You know: us. They come up against all kinds of new situations and different questions about how to behave and what to do. They are women who want to achieve, but don’t want to sacrifice their souls. It’s much more of a drama than SATC: what happens to these women, what they do in certain situations and “Oh my God, could I ever get myself into a situation like that, and what would I do?” I’ve had young women quoting lines, such as the one where the boss says to Nico something like: “Be careful, a halo can quickly turn into a noose.”

The fashion is certainly important, but more significant are the women’s friendships and the reality of living in New York. Every time you go out with your girlfriends, are you going to drink in the trendiest bar? No, you’re probably going to go to the closest watering hole for 30 minutes, because the reality is that two of you are married and one has kids. When you meet up, it’s for companionship.

So the characters wear clothes that women in New York really do wear. It’s more about the cut than the label, about having a really fine piece of clothing and establishing who you are — that you’re a successful woman — as opposed to “I found the right handbag. This is my weapon, get back”. It’s more like: “My clothes express my status, but I’m not going to hit everybody over the head, because it’s not appropriate.”

As told to Stephen Armstrong

Times recommends

• What took place in 2010...
• Can you really cure a hangover?
• Video: How to do glamorous smoky eyes