Gossip Girl Costumer Eric Daman Breaks Down the Show's Next Round of Iconic Looks

In the name of a more socially conscious approach, Gossip Girl Queen B, Julien Calloway (Jordan Alexander), isn’t the unapologetic schemestress that is Blair. So, Daman says the most substantial wardrobe shift for season’s part two comes as she navigates both the guilt from plotting against her sister Zoya Lott (Whitney Peak) in the past, and most recently, deals with the fall out of her father’s fiasco. “I think she’s kind of reexamining what it all means, and who she is in the world, and what her influence means,” Daman says.

Daman says he enjoys exploring the dichotomy of traditionally masculine and feminine dressing with Alexander; viewers see the character trade her sharp blazers for items such as an ultra oversized patchwork knit sweater, a giant Fubu jersey or New York brand Area’s version of a casual gray hoodie. “[Julien was] always sort of minimalist,” Daman explained, “but this is much more kind of cozy, step back, introspective wear, I would say.”

Perhaps a parallel to OG Gossip Girl‘s Dan Humphrey, Zoya joins Constance Billard on a scholarship with a little finessing from Julien, and it’s clear she doesn’t share the same financial standing as her sister and her pals. But according to Daman, that we often see the New York transplant in her trusty plaid overall dress, and a collection of slogan tees (such as the “Abolish ICE” number from episode eight), is one hundred percent by choice and not indicative of her inherited social status. “Zoya could choose to borrow all of Julien’s clothing [if she wanted],” Daman told us. “We saw that she could gain access to that world very easily, very quickly. So I definitely think it’s a choice that she has kind of gone back into these stronger, maybe thrifted pieces that have a sociopolitical consciousness to them. I think [they’re] important to where she is in her story as well.” There was a brief moment in part one where Luna enlists herself as Zoya’s stylist of sorts, but the season’s final six episodes are where she seems to be at her most authentic yet. “Of course she gets mesmerized by how she sees her sister living, and the magic of this otherworldliness of high fashion,” Daman said. “The allure to all that is, of course, very enticing to her to play with. But I think she also knows that she gets burnt by it and kind of pulls back, so we don’t really [see that] so much in these new episodes.”

“We really threw the [school uniform] guidelines out the window,” Daman explained. “In the original, it’s very specific – only flat shoes, no sneakers. They have to wear the navy skirt and a white blouse with a navy school tie. But I just felt like, in this new world that we’re living in, we just wanted to make it feel very, very modern.” Like the costuming of the private school style of dress in New York in the late noughties, the reboot’s looks are just as much based on the real-life shift. Daman told me as he was walking by Grace Church School one day, a Catholic school in the East Village borough of Manhattan, he noticed students had indeed come a long ways from the getups emulated by Blair and her gang of frenemies. Instead of neatly pressed button down tops tucked into their bottoms, they were wearing oversize sweatshirts eclipsing their tiny skirts.

“It was not nearly as extreme [as the Gossip Girl reboot costuming],” Daman said. “They weren’t wearing size triple X bomber jackets and biker shorts.” Indeed, you’d be forgiven for questioning whether or not Julien is even wearing pants under her oversize button downs at times. According to Daman, a few of the school costumes are even custom made pieces he affectionately calls Constance Billard merch. For instance, Julien at one point wears a Saint Laurent varsity jacket embellished with “CB” logo patches. “Of course, they’re not going to buy stuff from the school bookstore to wear. They’re going to go get the [high end] version of it and then throw the school patch on it so it feels like a school uniform. So we’re definitely taking liberties. But the overall look and the proportion play was inspired by a group of kids I ran into on the street.”

More than one of the reboot’s main characters are seen sporting vintage styles, from vintage Fendi to a handbag from Dior’s 2005 Rasta collection. Then, at a school Christmas party, a vintage velvet and laser-cut Jean Paul Gaultier dress Julien wears becomes episode eleven’s standout fashion moment. It mirrors trends that are very much happening in fashion right now.

“[Vintage dressing was] definitely not prevalent or part of the story at all in the original,” Daman told me. “I feel like there wasn’t the mindfulness, I would say, that we have today of circular fashion and the importance of sustainability. So what is front of mind going into this is it’s important for Gossip Girl to emulate the zeitgeist. To have the platform that I have and to be able to have discussions about sustainability and how we can do that with luxury and basic vintage is really awesome as well.” Daman explained that actual vintage pieces would perhaps be a staple for Zoya’s wardrobe, if it weren’t for the logistics of filming an episodic project. “We have to get dupes and triplicates on a lot of things because they wear them for ten hours a day, back-to-back, three days in a row. [To keep the pieces clean], it’s hard to do as much vintage as we would like. So the designer handbags, that’s an easier way to slide it in.”

An unexpected turn of events during episode ten include Audrey Hope (Emily Alyn Lind) and her mother crashing a dinner date Max Wolfe (Thomas Doherty) and his father Gideon Wolfe (Todd Almond) have with Eleanor Waldorf (Margaret Colin), mother to the original Queen B. In an even more unexpected turn of events (or perhaps we should have seen this coming) Eleanor is also now head of the CFDA. Whatever the situation, Eleanor’s brief return no doubt offered a nostalgic touch to the reboot’s first season, bringing a bit of OG Gossip Girl fashion with her.

“It was important to make it feel like Eleanor had moved forward, but also that she was the Eleanor we know and love,” Daman said of the moment. “She’s just kind of this heightened version of herself. We gave her this regal old world look, yet wanted to have it feel a little – I don’t want to say stodgy – but a little stuck in the past compared to where we are now.” Daman contrasted Eleanor’s look against Gideon, who is also a friend of Eleanor’s, and whose costuming still comes with an over-the-top other-worldly feel, yet moves the needle forward in terms of fluidity and sexual identity. “She just hadn’t moved forward as much necessarily,” he continued. “But I mean, it was definitely a contemporary look that felt true to where we left off with her and who she is.”