Before this year, a cottage industry arose on social media when fans documented all the fashion that appeared on the set of the Gossip Girl reboot. This spring, when paparazzi took pictures of these looks, this cottage industry reached an inferno of popularity, with everyone eagerly discussing the looks and their implications.
Jordan Alexander and Whitney Peak exited the Plaza Hotel in New York City and were captured in photos that have become well-known for showcasing various outfits worn by Beyoncé (a sheer black Givenchy Couture gown) and Solange (a peachy pink satin dress by 3.1 Phillip Lim with a ruffled skirt) to the 2014 Met Gala. Both images have also made a name for themselves in the media as they portray Beyoncé and Solange getting into a specific elevator in Lower Manhattan later that night.
After weeks of speculation, the obsessive Gossip Girl audience finally received the explanation they were seeking as to why the half-sisters donned those looks—they were for Halloween! According to Eric Daman, though, his immediate reaction to reading the screenplay for the episode was a bit different from that of the audience. At first, I just wanted to create one-of-a-kind dresses for the Met Gala based on what Beyoncé wore there last year. Daman responds, saying, ” We just smashed our first wall. Luckily, the show’s creator, Joshua Safran, allowed Daman and his team plenty of time to develop the overall design, allowing Julien and Zoya’s guests to arrive at the party clothed. It’s usually up against the clock, but thanks to Josh, we were given enough time to be able to accomplish it, according to Daman. To further realize the design inspired by Beyoncé, Daman was once again able to cooperate with Jennifer Behr, a former headband designer for Blair Waldorf on the show. They used Behr’s crystals to build a veil with a Beyoncé-inspired pattern. To reach out to her, Daman commented, “She was my go-to headband person, so it just felt natural.”
Although the goal of the party was to resemble Beyoncé and Solange, it was not the only thing they had to work on. Daman came up with a list of dozens of New York icons, ranging from Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra to Cardi B and Lady Gaga. Those eagle-eyed watchers will notice that when Gaga donned the four-in-one Brandon Maxwell ensemble to the 2019 Met Gala, she paid homage to the original Gossip Girl series, too. Some of Julien’s opponents arrived at the party dressed as original Gossip Girl characters, a reference to the New York Upper East Side teen social scene. Daman feels it was amazing when those pop songs began to resurface: Originally, they merely had two of Serena and Blair’s most famous looks put into the screenplay. They ended up selecting the outfit worn by Blair Waldorf for her cotillion ball in the tenth episode of the first series, when her mother, the renowned fashion designer Eleanor Waldorf, created it for her. In the Gossip Girl revival, it was revealed that Blair’s cotillion dress was one of the first items that the show’s in-house costume department created and manufactured from scratch. Recreating the wedding dress she wore in the final episode of the original series for her wedding to Dan Humphrey, they chose the outfit worn by actress Blake Lively in the final episode of the revival series. Not only did they manage to find the original, but they even figured out how to produce it. It was the original couture gown they had retained in their archives, so it was this George Hopper gown that they had relied on for reference. In Daman’s opinion, the show’s wildly creative costuming so far is completed with the Halloween episode, which allows him to display a new, though similarly wild, facet of several characters. Emily Alyn Lind and Evan Mock’s stormy pair Audrey and Aki came as Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach for their appearance as New York legends. It’s really up to the fans to make the game interesting for them. ”