Candace Bushnell chats Sex and The City, Fashion week at Shanghai at Hutong and her one woman show!

The original creator of Sex and The City book author and television producer, Candace Bushnell, stopped by Chanel in the City during fashion week to chat with host, Chanel Omari on all things fashion week, sex and the city, her thoughts on Just like That, what inspired her behind her books of Sex and the City, her one woman show and more!


Candace Bushnell hosted fashion week at The Shanghai at The Hutong, one of the hottest lounges and restaurant bars in New York City where A list celebrities are spotted there at all times, like Ramona Singer, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick and more!


Candace opens up about her inspiration for Sex and the City, the characters and why the series has such successful longevity.


Candace also opens up on why lipstick jungle was one of her favorite series to create.


Candace chats her one woman show: True Tales of Sex, Success, and Sex and the City and why it's so important more now than ever to love yourself and find independence as a woman instead of relying on a man for everything. She also chats about finding love at any age and shares some awesome dating tips on how to date in the city!

Make sure to follow @candacebushnell for more updates/ for the Sex and the City.

This episode is sponsored by The Bruno Collection by Tomer Amar. Tomer Amar is a celebrity stylist and designer/creative director. Amar has worked with and creatively styled sets and cast memebers from Sex and the City, Shark Tank, Gossip Girl and more. Amar has worked with/styled celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Catrall, Leighton Meester, Blake Lively and more!

The Bruno Collection is a casual custom made suit sweat line known for its finest quality and comfortable fabrics. Make sure to follow Tomer Amar @thebrunocollection @stylenysee

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Hey guys. Shanella Mari here fromthe Shanella City podcast on iHeart Radio.
We're here in New York City duringFashion Week with one of the biggest icons,
one of our inspirations, the originalcreator of Sex in the City.
She's an entrepreneur, she's a missFashion each for herself at the Shanghai at
All Time with Canada's Wish now theone in all Week. How are you
today, I'm actually doing right.I'm doing great. I love fashion Week.

(00:30):
So fashion Week is it your favorite? Yes, I'm here. Yes,
I have been coming to fashion weekreally since the first fashion week organized
by Fern Malice, which was probablyback in like nineteen ninety I want to
say nineteen ninety two or nineteen ninetythree, and then it started in a

(00:50):
tense a couple of years later,and then everything was in the tenths and
that was convenient and pretty easy becauseyou just had to go to Bryant Park.
And now you go all over thecity. You go to fashion shows,
you go to parties, you cometo events like this the Shanghai Lounge
at Hutong, which is one ofmy favorite places. Yes, and thank

(01:15):
you, thank you, And infact this is where I bring all of
my online dates. Yes, wow, what are the two ess it is?
Well, I mean, first ofall, I love the lounge.
I love the atmosphere. They havegreat drinks and I always get there's like
a spicy it's not a margarita,but it has little chili peppers around the

(01:42):
rim, which is maybe not agood thing to do, like a a
date plat mouth. But I lovethe drinks here. And it's also super
convenient because you can get here fromuptown downtown because it's fifty eighth straight.
And also I guess Brooklyn, althoughI don't. I don't really go to

(02:07):
Brooklyn that much, but but yeah, so it's it's great and people are
you know, they'll they will callme or you have like a drink to
drinks you know you might stay thefew tiers fantastic or you know you might
be like by. But so that'samazing. That's a fascinating said in a

(02:30):
day night. What's your tips asladies out there on single still or single
ladies? How I don't know ifthey keep a man, but maybe keep
them interested. Well, okay,so this my feeling always used to be
if you could get three dates witha guy. You could probably turn him
into your boyfriend. The problem isthese days, I don't know about you,

(02:54):
but it's like I see them onceand you get sick of them,
right, well, no, butyou know, and then even if you
think it went well, then youdon't hear from them again for three weeks.
It's like really you know, butthen like I've totally forgotten about you,

(03:15):
right, like why are you textingme? Right? And why didn't
you text me, like, youknow, two weeks ago? But so
I find that is a problem.There's no momentum, right, and I
feel like one needs momentum in dating. You need to feel, you know,
that spark of excitement and then ithas to go somewhere otherwise it just

(03:37):
fizzles out. And people are somehowbusier than they ever have been. I
think it has a lot to dowith social media. You know, they're
busy on social media. Well,because, as I say, do you
think it's different dating nowadays than like, I don't know, from me,
when I was dating back in myearly twenties or whatever, it was just
in different, it was more oldfashioned. Yes, it's definitely it's definitely

(04:00):
different. And I mean when Iwas dating in my twenties and thirties.
You know, you would have somany. Yes, there were a couple
of maybe a couple of bad dates, but most of the dates were pretty
good. And you know, Ijust always remember having a lot of really
good experiences. Now when I talkto people about dating online, they all

(04:27):
have had like crazy bad experiences,you know, even the guys. You
know, a guy told me thiswoman came to meet him and she bit
him. And he said, youknow, I've never met her before and
she bit me. So really strangeand disconcerting things like that happened, and

(04:49):
I believe you it's become weird.It's a little odd. Any advice that
we I guess it's date with usbe ourselves. I don't know. Well,
you know, everybody always says,you know, be yourself. I
don't know. I mean, maybebeing ourselves isn't the best idea because it's
not working that well. Maybe weshould try to be somebody else. I

(05:13):
don't know exactly, but you know, no, no, no, I
just try being somebody else. Whatdo you have to lose? You know,
I'm like belf, But yeah,you're right, something's gonna change it
up. I mean, yes,I mean in theory that that should work.
But I don't know. I knowso many single women. I know
more single women now than I didwhen I was writing Sex in the City.

(05:35):
Really, so, I mean,I don't know if it's well,
that's a good thing for me andI have home right like a whole Are
you single? I am? Iam? And I'm actually on a couple
of dating apps. Wow, AndI did ask a couple of the guys
to come here tonight. Will theyProbably not, because there's guys on a

(05:57):
dating app. So do you feellike men these they are intimidated by powerful
women have their own businesses like youwho are not you know, have success.
I have no I have no idea. I have no idea. I
mean sometimes I feel like sometimes whenI meet super powerful, successful women,
I'm intimidated. You know. Wellso, but you know, I mean,

(06:23):
it just it depends on the people, yea, it really does.
So I don't know. I haveno idea, but I would say this
to women, don't you know,don't change your goals or wanting to be
successful because of a guy, youknow, because you think you want to

(06:44):
maybe meet a guy, and maybeguys don't like successful women. Well,
I've been hearing that forever, andall I can say is that, you
know, don't give up your successbecause your career is more reliable than a
man. I love it with hearingit from a legend like yourself. You're

(07:05):
an iconic women I look up to. We all do. It gives us
that stability and confidence, and that'sokay, because somehow we do get lost
in men. We do get lostin that relationship because we feel like we
have to be submissive and at somepoints in our lives, right it's either
him or the job. I mean, do you have it absolutely? Yeah?

(07:26):
Yeah, I mean people do,they do all the time. It's
just you know, I mean it'speople, don't you know. There are
a lot of economic factors involved thesedays, you know, in dating,
I mean a lot of like whathappens in dating has a lot to do
with the economy. You know,do people have money to date? You

(07:50):
know, men feel like I needa lot of money to support a woman.
And even today with women being verysuccessful, I meet a lot of
guys as you say, you know, this woman, she wants me to
have this, she wants me tohave that, and she wants me to
buy her things. And they're overwhelmed, you know, so you know that's

(08:15):
I mean, my feeling is,buy your own goddamn shoes. You know,
yes, you heard it here first, by your own tam shoes.
That's what I'm gonna do. I'mnot relying on a man anymore. It's
so inspiring. Let's talk about yourone woman's show. Yes, I have
no doing. I'm doing a onewoman's show called True Tales of Sex,

(08:35):
Success and Sex in the City.So I talk about rys on top.
It's not really really fun, andit's about how I created Sex in the
City, how hard I worked toget there, why I invented Carrie Bradshaw,
and what happened to me after.And we play a little game real

(08:56):
or not real, because so manythings that happened in the show are actually
better or worse than my real life. So we play out your game so
you get to know me a littlebit better. And I mean, for
instance, one of the questions isdid I data Senator? Remember when Carrie
data Stora. When I watched it, I was like, oh no,

(09:22):
this guy's gonna be so pissed off, not unintended. And then of course
there was the thing about like divp I know. So that's like,
that's one of the fun, funaspects of the game. Well, that's
amazing talking about you know, you'recreating a win. Oh and I'm doing
it at green Room forty two Octobereleventh, twelfth, fourteenth, and fifteenth,

(09:46):
and the fifteenth is a Sunday,and that is a brunch show at
one pm, which I think willbe so much fun, so much because
of course they serve food and drinkat green Room forty two. Yes,
and so you can go on greenRoom forty two dot com. I think
that's it and get tickets. That'samazing. So it's really really fine.

(10:07):
It's a great it's a great timeout with girlfriends, girl friend. Yeah,
I'm gonna say girls night out.Do we know when my girl's gonna
come see and support you? Yes? How is that? You know they're
talking about being the original creader ofSex in the City and you know,
having you one woman show. Whatare your tips? I guess how you
pulpe with in general mental health yourdaily life, like not letting anything get

(10:28):
to you, kind of having thatfocus. You know, you seem always
focus right one goal that is probablysomewhat true. And you know I just
remember when I was younger, Ifelt it was everything felt so much more

(10:50):
emotional. When you get a littlebit older, you can step back from
things at the same time, youknow, I always used to get to
excited about things like, oh mygod, this amazing, amazing thing happened,
and you know, and now I'mlike whatever, you know, I
just I don't have the same expectationsthat I used to. And also,

(11:15):
you know, the world has changeda bit, So I think that's fantastic
advice. I think we have alot of expectations sometimes when people in general
or just things. Yes, andI like the like, you're very chill
even when I first met her,she's just you have like such a chill
whole vibe when you're down to her. Then it's feeling your your for equality,
you know, and that's cool tosee. On an off stage,

(11:35):
I always say, like talent thatyou know, we we read about you
when we don't see what you're goingyou know, so it's cool that like
we can share your authentic self thatin many yes, exactly what inspired you
to creating Sex in the City somethingso like, well, Sex in the
City was really like continuum of workthat I started doing when I was I

(11:58):
don't know as and I moved toNew York City. I was always writing
about my adventures going out in NewYork people I saw, and then I
wrote for women's magazines. So Imean I was writing about like my Samantha

(12:18):
and my Miranda and my Charlotte atleast ten years before I even wrote the
first column. So Sex in theCity was really just a continuum of what
I'd already already been doing. Wow, it didn't a lot of people think
like, oh, it came outof the bluet. No, it was
like I was working for years andI perfected this certain style and way of

(12:45):
writing and voice, and you know, eventually somebody recognized it and said,
you should have your own column.I love that. How would who would
you say as your favorite character?Wife? Well, I mean the reality

(13:05):
is that some of the characters soI really loved were on another TV show
that I did, Lipstick Jungle.I love, I really loved those characters
on Lipstick Jungle, And you know, I love the characters on Sex in
the City, you know, Imean, Carrie and Samantha are definitely my

(13:26):
favorites. But you know, Ilove Cynthia Nixon, she's fantastic. So
and you see all of them inyou obviously, you know, I don't
because I don't do that thing ofyou know that women are always encouraged to
do of like well, what's yourfavorite color? Which character are you like?

(13:46):
I don't do that. I've neverdone that. I don't know.
I think everybody's I think everybody's unique. I love that. So I love
that and just like that came outtwo seasons now, Yeah, you feel
about it being the original reader ingeneral, how do you feel it in
these seasons? Do you like itto like the character's aid, I am.

(14:07):
I have a great time watching it. And it's so thrilling that you
know. I mean I think thefirst episode aired twenty five years ago.
Yeah, and you know it's comeback around, so it's really incredible.
That's so it's great. Is socool to see. Yeah, it's an
inspiration. I mean if you lookedup to you, you know, for

(14:28):
advice for the talks, the downs, you know, even now. I
mean that's another question I want toask you. How do you feel other
people I don't want to suuse theword copying, but imitating some of the
work, you know, over theyears, you know, I including my
podcasting shel City because you know,because you started in the city that the
Woman about Town. But you seemso supportive in general of everybody. You

(14:52):
know, You're like, this isgreat, Yes, yes, I like,
how would you do? You knowwhat I mean, like, it's
my original idea? Well, Ican you know things are They're really about
the execution. And that's a littlebit when I would say to people like
copying or you know, kind ofdoing what somebody else does is you know,

(15:16):
it doesn't always really work because whatit's really about is the execution,
and that execution you only get fromyou know, sitting down and doing the
work, you know, again andagain and again. I mean, you
know, I I was writing professionallyfor fifteen years before I started writing The

(15:41):
Sex of the City call, right, So I all that experience, but
people don't realize that. They willsee it's like an overnight sensation, but
it's not. Well everybody thinks thatin New York, but New York.
Before we sign off, one tipfor the Channel City audience of where you
like to go a restaurant you liketo check out, I would say,
I come to the lounge Shanghai Loungeat Houton. That's right, we're here

(16:06):
fashion Me. We're here with KandasBushnell. Thank you so much for everything.
Thank you, but you're amazing.You're an icon. You're just an
inspiration to all of us women,and you're beautiful and I hope to be
one day. Thank you for doingthis for our radio. You're amazing.
Thank you. Hi, it's KandiceBushnell. You're watching me on Channel in
the City on iHeartRadio.