Costume Designer Eric Daman on the Looks in Gossip Girl
Gossip Girl Costumer Designer Eric Daman Breaks Down the Show's Next Round of Iconic Outfits
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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."