‘Gossip Girl’ Costume Designer Talks about Gen Z Fashion Evolution Show

The costume designs in “Gossip Girl” have brought together an iconic fashion generation, with Manhattan private school students oozing privilege and luxury with their signature headbands, glossy tea-length dresses, pipe and plaid blazers, school uniforms. And now, more than a decade after the show’s inception, as social media becomes increasingly intertwined with everyday life, costume designer Eric Daman—who worked on both the original show and this year’s reboot—is given the opportunity to create an all-new look for HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl”. through the lens of Gen Z.

“I feel like I have a very fresh perspective on it,” Daman told TheWrap. “I have just been able to leave the past, see this as a whole new beginning and a whole new storyline with all the new characters and have a very fresh and open-minded perspective on it. As far as inspiration goes, it doesn’t have to be Selena’s or Blair’s; I was just able to turn the page, and I think it really liberated my design institution. Without having time off, it would be a very different stylistic challenge for me.”

Daman also says that a big part of the evolution of fashion from 2007 to the present is the influence that social media — Instagram in particular — has had, which allowed him to “dive deeper” into the platform and its various influencers to see how they do it. manifests today’s outfits and the fashion sense and style of each character reboot.

“A big part of the show’s storyline is the way people interact,” Daman said. “We didn’t have Instagram back then [in 2007], but right now, I’m taking a very deep dive into Instagram and influencers, trying to get a feel for who each character will be following and how Instagram relevance translates into our characters’ outfits. And the fact that we have more access to style and fashion is very inspiring and helps to give [the fashion] the fresh new look we saw on the show.”

For Julien (Jordan Alexander), the show’s constant influencer, up-and-coming model, and all-around trendsetter, Daman says he looks to the likes of Hadid’s sisters and Kaia Gerber to really understand what it means to be an influencer and how it’s going to be. translated into him. style. And because Julien’s father is a DJ and music producer, he looks to Rihanna and Beyonc for inspiration.

For Zoya (Whitney Peak), a politically-minded and socially-conscious transfer student from Buffalo and younger sister Julien, Daman looks elsewhere for inspiration. He asked her to take a tote bag from a black-owned bookstore like Revolution Books in Harlem and wear more casual clothes like denim and vintage flannel, before slowly showing how her sister and group of friends had influenced her in style.

“The importance of the brand and the actual visual identity that she carries with her clothes didn’t matter to her until she got to the Upper Eastside and saw what it represented for all of them and also realized how she could use it. [clothes] as a strength,” said Daman.

Referring to the fourth episode of the series where Zoya turns 15 and she and Julien have a duel party, Daman continues, “I think there he realized that to appear in a Stella McCartney jumpsuit and a Louis Vuitton bag would bring more power than if he appeared in her Levi overalls.”

And her favorite fashion moment from the reboot so far?

“The Christopher John Rogers fashion show was a huge coup for us, but I’m really excited that we were able to partner with Christopher,” Daman said. “Every time I see that scene, I still get goosebumps. It is fire. Literally.”