While 'Sex and the City' once made for must-see TV, the new film more resembles 150-minute ad break

• Fashion victims: A rumoured $10 million was spent on outfits for use in Sex and the City 2.

So varied were the women on this hugely successful television show that answers are based on a number of factors, from attitudes towards relationships to sex drive. However, it's the characters' personal style that divides opinions most. Carrie is quirky and eclectic; Charlotte's a preppy, Park Avenue princess; Miranda is chic and arty and Samantha is a sexy Eighties power-dresser.

If New York is the fifth lady on the show, fashion has always been the sixth. Thanks to the show's stylist, Oscar-nominated costume designer Patricia Field, left, women tuned in to the television show to see what their favourite characters were wearing, and trends from the show sprung up everywhere from the catwalk to the high street. While the clothes were certainly glamorous, there was a distinct accessibility to them in their successful mix of designer, vintage and, occasionally, high street.

But with the advent of the two box-office busting films, those days are gone. Where once Carrie Bradshaw went shopping for "A pair of $400 (325] shoes to go with my $4 vintage dress", the films have become an homage to excess. Rumour has it that the four stars wear more than $10 million worth of clothes and accessories in the second film, and it's frankly embarrassing to see four previously stylish women decked out in such blingy tat.

Carrie, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, has nearly 50 costume changes – from be-spangled Christian Louboutin shoes to vintage Dior – and to accommodate such a high number, each one is paraded in front of the viewer at an extraordinary speed. Tellingly, there's an official book out already cataloguing every piece of clothing worn by each character.

The characters now rarely look stylish, but always look very, very rich. Of course we've always known that Carrie could never quite stretch to her designer wardrobe on a freelance writer's salary (in one episode her credit card is declined in an expensive shop; in another she can't put a downpayment on her apartment because she's spent all her money on shoes), and that was part of the fun; we also knew she'd never be able to navigate Manhattan in those heels.

However, the Sex and the City of 2010 depicts the unexamined lives of four disgustingly rich women, once sharp and witty, now vacuous and utterly obsessed with clothes, luxury and face creams. It has become more about the wardrobes than the women. In the final episode of the television series, Carrie loses a much-loved necklace that she picked up at a flea market for a few dollars. Her rich Russian boyfriend replaces it with an expensive diamond necklace. But the necklace isn't right and neither is the relationship. The message is that Carrie herself is not a pricey-but-dull diamond necklace, but a quirky one-off vintage find. Fast-forward to the second film and her husband gives her a big diamond ring on their wedding anniversary. She gives him a Rolex watch.

The reviews of the film have been scathing, with many lingering on the fact that sparkling dialogue, enviable friendships and relatable storylines about single women navigating their way through life have been replaced by a 150-minute long advertisement for luxury goods. One review said that if the four women of the television series were to meet the four women of the films, they'd laugh at them.

The cast have spoken out against the scathing reviews, knowing that plenty of women will go to see this film anyway, if not for the dialogue then for the shoes. How wrong they are. Kim Cattrall, who plays Samantha, responded to the criticism by saying: "I think that people will be interested in seeing it, no matter what. There's many delights. If the storylines don't grab you, the fashion might."

TRENDSETTERS: HOW THE TV SHOW CHANGED THE HIGH STREET

CORSAGES

One of Carrie's signature accessories: she wore her corsages that were oversized and in your face, pinned to cocktail dresses and T-shirts.

It was one of the easiest and cheapest of the SATC looks to reproduce successfully, hence the reason that in the mid-noughties women everywhere wandered the streets with enormous silk flowers pinned to their lapels.

TUTUS

Carrie famously wore a pale-pink tutu in the opening credits of the television show, and it made an appearance again in the first film, setting a trend for very full skirts that sat on or below the knee.

They were regularly worn by characters Carrie and Charlotte. By SATC2 this look had morphed into a full lilac crinoline, which Carrie wears to go shopping for spices in a souk.

MANOLO BLAHNIKS

And indeed any shoes with a heel-height of over 4in. Carrie is never out of her heels, and a number of storylines on both the show and in the two films revolve around her obsession with designer shoes. Manolo Blahniks are her favourite, and her constant references to the Spanish designer helped to make his a household name. She's also been seen wearing Jimmy Choos and Christian Louboutins. As the show grew more popular, shoes on the high street grew higher, more colourful and more ostentatious.

PEEK-A-BOO UNDERWEAR

Having a bra-strap slipping down her shoulder or a pair of granny pants on show was never a problem for Carrie, who treated her underwear as an important element of her wardrobe. Far from trying to conceal it, she celebrated it, wearing black La Perla racy lacies under transparent white blouses. The trend was set for underwear as outerwear, and it's never gone away.

NAMEPLATE NECKLACES

From the first series to the last episode, Carrie wore an ironically tacky gold necklace bearing her own name. Towards the end of the programme, we discovered that she bought it in a market on a shopping trip with the girls. In an attempt to capitalise on the popularity of this item of jewellery, the show's stylist, Patricia Field, designed a distinctly ugly four-leafed clover necklace for Carrie to wear on SATC2, which, conveniently enough, is available for fans to buy through her online shop.