Gossip Grrrrr…

May 9, 2008 by Morgan  Send to a Friend

I’m going to say it. I realize that I may be the only one in the FASHION BLOGOSPHERE to do so, but I’m going to say it anyways: I just don’t get the mania surrounding Gossip Girl. I don’t get the giddy excitement over the styling, I don’t understand why it has no-holds-barred taken over the fashion blogs, and I really, really don’t get why those damn Gossip Girl books were optioned in the first place (I was a middle school librarian for six months; the job consisted of an hour of actual work and the rest of the time I spent becoming an EXPERT on serial novels for kids and young adults. Let me tell you - GG is NO Series of Unfortunate Events. Or even Princess Diaries. But I digress). I write this knowing full well that it sounds crazy coming from an unabashed fan of primetime soaps like the OC and 90210 - I mean seriously, I still haven’t given up on The Hills. But I just cannot get down with Gossip Girl.

I could understand the fashion hype if this were the first time designer clothing was worn on television, but it’s NOT, or if the styling was revolutionary or incendiary or even, for lack of a better word, AWESOME - but again, no dice. It is clever - Leighton Meester’s Blair is so primary-colored and preptastic-by-way-of-Harajuku that it hurts and thrills at the same time; Chuck’s bow-ties, I’ll admit, can be pure, unadulterated joy, but I stand firm that at this point in the game “costuming” doesn’t equal styling. It did when Patricia Field styled Sex and the City, but not only had it not been done previously, it was done believably. I’ll give you that it did not age well - the reruns look tremendously dated, but still, there were subtleties. Here, it just rings false - the actors become caricatures in their clothing, hyper-exaggerated versions of their characters. Even those less outrageously-dressed are cliches: Blake Lively’s Serena and Penn Badgley’s Dan are essentially Rachel Green with better boots and Seth Cohen’s closet-doppelganger. We’ve seen it before.

It’s hard to justify disliking the buzz surrounding Gossip Girl having attested to my inexplicable love for The Hills, which, like GG, is often fixated upon by fashion blogs both large and small. The difference, I think, is that The Hills occasionally gives insight (however fictional) on the behind-the-scenes of the fashion industry. The girls interned for Teen Vogue; Whitney’s new job is assisting at big-shot fashion PR firm People’s Revolution; Lauren, like, has her own clothing line and stuff. Attention from the fashion world is expected - it involves them. Gossip Girl - not so much, at least not beyond the designer labels and a Lydia Hearst guest-spot. The shit did not hit the fan like this with the most recent of primetime guilty pleasures, the OC (although it could have with Sex and the City - and then some), and even if it HAD, would it really warrant eight references in a five day posting week from Fashionista.com like Gossip Girl? I mean, when it comes down to it, I get why it’s watchable. It is pretty to look at, and it is so bad it’s good, but let’s stop raving over it, style-wise. I want my fashion blogs back.

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