Rich beautiful people, champagne-soaked parties and free flowing scandal: you’ll find all these in Gossip Girl. However, it’s the fashion worn by the show’s high schoolers in Manhattan’s wealthy Upper East Side that caused a frenzy, both when the show first aired in 2007, and now with the 2021 continuation.
From the start, returning costume designer Eric Daman intended to ignite trends through a “campy,” heightened and heavily accessorised vision — like a living fashion editorial. “But we never really thought it was going to turn into the wildfire that it did,” says Daman, who assisted Patricia Field on Sex and the City early in his career. The private school It Girl Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and Queen Bee Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) carried their school supplies in Lady Dior, Brooks Brothers and Valentino bags and wore luxury labels like Alberta Ferretti and Armani to swill cocktails in Manhattan’s toniest establishments.
Daman also reinvigorated preppy menswear by stylising tailored three-piece suiting. “The men watching then saw Chuck Bass [Ed Westwick], as this $300-glass-of-whiskey-swirling billionaire bad boy in pink and bow-ties and dressing in a way that we hadn’t seen,” says Daman, who continued to influence our perceptions of one-percenters on the TV drama Billions set in the hedge fund world.
Whether in aspirational teen dramas such as Aaron Spelling’s Beverly Hills, 90210, soaps like Dynasty, or HBO’s Succession, the lives and wardrobes of the wealthy are endlessly fascinating. And on Gossip Girl, in which the immaculately outfitted teens’ exploits are continuously exposed and manipulated by the titular all-knowing narrator (voiced by an also-returning Kristin Bell), fashion is intentionally another compelling character. It was another era, though, when the coveted demographic of women aged 18-to-34 were still seeking inspiration in magazines and shopping in-store.
In 2008, a New York Times headline screamed: “Forget Gossip, Girl; The Buzz is About the Clothes.” Fashion label Tory Burch, whose pieces were often featured, reported an increase in sales after episodes aired. Jessica Morgan, co-founder/co-editor-in-chief of online magazine “Go Fug Yourself,” recalls Blair’s headband signature look: “Nobody else was wearing them at the time, and then she did. Suddenly at Fashion Week, there were a ton of junior editors milling around in headbands of their own.”
Gossip Girl shook up the trends of the late aughts, such as ubiquitous leggings (cue Blair’s now-famous “tights are not pants!” admonishment), and created new ones with elevated takes on prep-school plaids and bold-hued hosiery worn with skirts.
“Gossip Girl came in and took a very specific moment of pop culture — when the internet was making celebrities of socialites, and people in general were becoming more brand-aware about fashion — and moulded it into something forward-looking,” explains Morgan.
The landscape has vastly shifted into 2021. This decade’s target youth audience is accustomed to style content on Instagram and TikTok. Zoomers are style and brand conscious, but value transparency, authenticity and social responsibility. So will Gossip Girl still make the same fashion and cultural impact — beyond its established millennial fan base?
The continuation, from the original co-creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, and showrunner Joshua Safran, arrives with a diverse cast and stories, unlike the first, to address topical issues and experiences. Characters are engaged in social justice activism, mental health is discussed and sexual and gender fluidity is the norm. “If they know that their audience is Gen Z, the show is spot on to embed social issues,” says trend forecaster Geraldine Wharry. “But not in a performative way. That’s another thing: Gen Z is fairly plugged into authenticity versus performance.”
Daman highlights gender neutral and fluid fashion: entertainment scion and Instagram influencer Julien, played by Jordan Alexander, has already gone viral in oversized button-ups, varsity sweaters and cycling shorts. Max (Thomas Doherty) rules the members-only club in Harry Styles-esque lace and floral flounce shirts. “That’s incredible that we can even have the discussions and that it’s available to kids, viewers and fans to see clothing and gender boundaries, and how it can be broken down,” says Daman.
In a bid to be more sustainable, he sourced vintage clothes, which reflect newcomer Zoya (Whitney Peak)’s socially conscious beliefs (and modest budget as compared to her profligate peers) and resonates with Gen Z’s shopping habits and interest in early-2000s fashion. “I feel like I’m buying the same Fendi baguette bag that I was getting for Sarah Jessica Parker,” laughs Daman. “I just keep repeating these classics.”
Taking his original vision to a new level, he outfitted the new cast in private school branded Saint Laurent and Balmain jackets and JW Anderson, Loewe and Dior bookbags. The costume closet features his trademark mix of heritage, buzzy contemporary and high street labels: Dior, Givenchy, Mugler, Ralph Lauren, Markarian and even River Island.
The costuming also supports and showcases black, indigenous or people of colour-owned brands, including LaQuan Smith, Wales Bonner, Telfar, Philadelphia Printworks, Noah and Monse. The premiere’s showdown takes place during a spectacular Christopher John Rogers runway for his Spring 2021 collection, which, due to Covid-19, was only presented in a digital format. The brief clip teased in the trailer boosted searches on Lyst for the 2019 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner by 14 per cent in the two weeks following.
Immediately following the cast lounging on the Metropolitan Museum of Art steps in November 2020, countless “where to buy” stories for Alexander’s white Schutz boots were published online. Lyst noted a sharp rise in searches for varsity jackets in June (up 19 per cent to June 20 compared with May), which is typically a slow month otherwise. Once paparazzi photos of the young cast filming scenes hit the wire, online and social media sleuths instantly spot and disseminate the wardrobe credits (and speculate on red carpet-referential plot-lines).
“Jordan will step out of her trailer, paparazzi will catch the outfit and the fans are ID-ing the bag within 10 minutes,” says a bewildered Daman. “The turnover of it is mind-blowing.” With social media and online reach instantaneous and international the trickle-down sartorial effect is guaranteed to jet-set quickly out of Manhattan, even if the series is currently only streaming on HBO Max in the US from July 8.
This attention also pushed Daman to rethink outdoor scenes that are on display to public and paparazzi. “I will put things that I want to be seen immediately, be it a vintage Dior saddle bag or shoes and boots, that I feel like are more ID-worthy, and in a way that I also want us to be represented,” he says.
Gossip Girl 2.0 is already repeating history by creating trends and moving sales numbers. However, this time around, it’s happening before audiences have even met the characters or their salacious stories. xoxo, Gossip Girl.
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