In Year 11, I decided I was too good for regulation school shoes, and convinced my mother to buy me a pair of Doc Martens “eight ups”. Wearing boots was not OK according to the rules of my private school, so each day, I had to wear knee-high socks that I strategically folded, rolled and “poufed” to create the illusion I was wearing loafers.
I was reminded of my senior school subterfuge again this week when I watched the premiere episode of the rebooted Gossip Girl, which takes place on the same rich, insular Manhattan Upper East Side as the show’s first incarnation but in the aftermath of Black Lives Matter and a pandemic. So how does that affect the clothes? Glad you asked.
Lana Coppel, founder of online store Order of Style, has watched both series and says while the original was very “editorial” and even “camp” in its tropes, “the reboot is sleeker, the understated mood makes it feel like an adult drama … The fashion feels homologous within the group – I could easily envision any of the characters cycling through the outfits of the others with ease.”
