"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 oversized 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 oversized 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."
Image Source: HBO Max