Field’s aesthetic is influenced less by current designers than by classic movies. "In my dreams, the fashion world is more glamorous than it is," she says. "I’m very inspired by the extravagance of old Hollywood. I love to watch Fred Astaire. It’s all so gorgeous. Of course I know that was another time, but I always lean a bit in that direction, and what’s on-screen becomes hyper-reality. If it were up to me, I’d be putting gloves and hats on people all the time. Sometimes directors want to pull me back. They’ll take off a hat or some jewelry. I know they’re going to do that, so I pack it on."

Although it has taken root in four lower-Manhattan locations since 1976, the gestalt of Patricia Field, the store, hasn’t changed. If Carrie didn’t buy the little tutu she wears in the title sequence of "Sex and the City" there, she could have. It’s a place where shoppers and salespeople of indeterminate gender feel at home. The boutique is so filled with glitter and color that being in it feels like being trapped in a kaleidoscope.

Field juggles running the store, styling for TV and magazine advertisements, and movie and TV projects - she did the pilot for ABC’s "Ugly Betty," and has signed on for a new ABC drama series "Six Degrees." She just quit the film now in production "The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing," starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Styling for private clients isn’t ordinarily on her agenda, but she’s intrigued by an approach from a woman she describes as "high foreign royalty." And there’s one other very public person she’d like to makeover.

"For a while, I put it out there that I would like to dress Hillary Clinton, because I felt I could offer her a good service," Field says. "I never got a response from her. Maybe if she sees ’The Devil Wears Prada’ and likes the way Meryl looks, she might take me seriously. I think she thinks I’m too kooky, or something."