With 'Divorce,' Sarah Jessica Parker makes a break from Carrie Bradshaw

Twelve years after Carrie and the girls shared their last brunch on HBO on “Sex and The City,” Sarah Jessica Parker will make her return to television in another series that examines the perils of modern romance.

As the title suggests, “Divorce” follows the dissolution of the decades-long marriage between Frances (Parker) and Robert (Thomas Haden Church). Premiering Oct. 9 on HBO, the comedy was created by Sharon Horgan, the Irish writer-actress of the Amazon series “Catastrophe.”

Carrie Bradshaw may still loom large in the collective memory, but for Horgan, fellow showrunner Paul Simms and Parker —  an executive producer on the series —  it was surprisingly easy to distinguish between Parker’s new role and the character who inspired a generation of women to lust after Manolo Blahniks.  

“Frances was so much her own person from the moment I read the pilot,” said Parker on Saturday at the Television Critics Assn. Press Tour in Beverly Hills. “She was so distinct from not only Carrie, but any other character I have ever played. Somebody who was so weary in ways that I had not seen or had a chance to play, and used language in a way I hadn’t ever and had a relationship with a man and children in a way I’d never had a chance to do.”

Speaking of those Manolos, fashion was the one area where Parker was determined to draw a clear line between her two HBO alter egos. You won’t see her character on “Divorce” wearing nameplate necklaces or oversized corsages.

Instead, she wears a slightly more functional, vintage-heavy wardrobe sourced from Etsy and thrift shops throughout the Northeast (including some truly enviable outerwear). The look, devised with costume designer Arjun Bhasin, was inspired by the cinema of the ’70s.  

For Parker, returning to the grind of series TV after more than a decade required only minor adjustments. 

“It’s like a muscle, slightly atrophied, and you sort of have to remind it of the routine,” the actress said. “It just reminded me, frankly, of how much I love television.”