Ok, ok, ok, the cat is out of the bag, despite my previous protestations at the way a lot of the fashion blogosphere have gone doolally over Gossip Girl, I am in fact a faithful downloader and viewer of the show and have even been urging friends from foreign lands who have yet to get the show in their country to do a bit of BitTorrenting… it goes without saying that Fashion is Spinach minute by minute commentary on the show is also compulsive reading. Don’t shoot me, there’s a lot of Susie time to fill on drab evenings and American teen shows with silly storylines and heightened fashion (though me thinks the strike has done the writing quality some good, non?) can be a neccessity.
Coming from a country where school uniform is pretty much standard across the country and where little variation/play is permitted, it is quite funny watching the school uniform being played up and costumified the way it is in Gossip Girl. Everyone somehow comes off looking like they’re NOT wearing school uniform as they’re gussied up with various trenches, tights, headbands, jackets and accessories, all detracting from what is a white shirt with a ribbon necktie and a tartan skirt. Yes, they are ALL actually wearing those two items even if they’re heavily disguised.
So with my bog standard navy skater skirt and a Fred Perry white shirt with necktie, I had a bit of school hi-jinx fun and if the rules can indeed be bent away, imagine the number of characters that could pop up…
Heather gets the A grades without even trying. She might turn up to school, she might not. Black makes her think clearly and precisely.
Constance steals Chanel from her mother and messes it up. She likes pearl necklaces but she might deconstruct them to make a headband.
Laia hardly says a word but she has some secrets hiding in her cigarette box which she always carries with her.
Victoria does her homework duly but struggles ever so much. Her glasses always falls off her nose as she tries to figure out what sort of florals to wear each day.
Vada doesn’t know whether she’s coming or going. Late everyday, hair in disarray and the only thing keeping her in school are her parents’ hefty annual donations to the not so discreet ‘School Fund’.
Fenella is the British transfer student and she’s slowly yet surely adjusting to her new school. Once the shell is opened up, she might even show the Upper East Siders a thing or two about what she knows about decadence.
Background pics from Teen Vogue
Truly, what FUN! I loved this little editorial of yours! It was also incredible fun to look at it.
Practically an editorial for Vogue Bubble!
a treat for the eyes! i love how in gossip girl the outfits all corordinate when they walk along the street, with lilac, white, red, minty green and baby blue. big fan of the white tights too and the little cross over ties. although isn’t the new asian girl just the old one with glasses? i can’t find good enough pictures of the both of them to confirm.
Hey, you did a good job with this!
PSML very funny!
Uniform has become a lot more lenient at my school lately, people have taken to ‘skinnifying’ their trousers and wearing uggs..
Still, I’ve always wanted to go in dressed like one of the girls in St Trinians, but we don’t have a tie!
Oh the wonderful fantasy world of Gossip Girl. A delightful cast of characters you have there. I particularly love the harlequin tights.
The idea of the different characters are so clever; constance, fennela and victoria are me favourite. I love the tights vada’s wearing though.
this is way too cute! I love it 🙂
WONDERFUL!
VADA is my favourite!! 🙂 this is so awesome!! 🙂 Btw, susie, do u have any idea what happened to Agathe of Stylebytes? its been more than 2 weeks and she hasn’t blogged!
Hi Susie, wow I love all the outfits. All really cool and simple, and easy to re-create! I love the clown like tights, I’ve never seen any like that before! This blog shows how tights and other accessories can really change the look of an outfit. At Tightsplease we have pink paisley tights for the hippy student, Tartan tights for the Scottish, Union Jack tights for the Punk, Cobweb tights for the Goth, leg warmers for the sporty girls and grey opaques for the Geek!
Great post! I don’t watch Gossip Girls (yet) but this makes me want to dress up in schoolgirl + personality style!
Such a creative post! I love to watch Gossip Girl (for reasons unknown to me), but I imagine a show filled with your characters would be just as fun!
brilliant! the story lines add such a great touch and gives us so much more to imagine. and the tights are fab.
As usual, Susie Bubble with the keen eye – great dissection of the characters’ personal style.
Gossip Girl prompted a ‘reminisce and compare’ session about my horrendous days in uniform which I had a lot of fun blogging on. Had we been allowed to accessorize a la Susie it would have been much sweeter memories rather than bitterness!
I LOVE THIS! haha. I totally fell under the Gossip Girl last week, I am now officially hooked! Those striped tights are amazing. I need a pair like that in my life stat!
<3
At last! Someone else in this slowcoach country willing to download. I think ITV2 is still on episode 3 so I can’t talk to ANYONE else about it! I’m so obsessed I watched the first 13 episodes in one go – I’m now eking them out more slowly – I’m going to watch ep 16 tonight! They’ll probably show series 1 on ITV 1 in about two years….
Love those harlequin tights.
I have to admit, I just can’t watch Gossip Girl. But I love the concept of uniforms and how you’ve played them up here! In PR, all schools have uniforms as well, and I sort of miss that. Having to wear those pieces of wardrobe forced you to be more thoughtful of your accessories -and- of what you wore outside of school, since it was those things that expressed your individuality when you couldn’t.
That said, I actually sort of miss wearing a uniform…it was so easy to have the fallback of not putting any thought into your outfit at times…
I totally forgot that the girls all wear a uniform on GG. I never notice due to the heavy accessories or bright trenches! Love your editorial :]
love this, styling + FUNNY editorial perfectly combined!
u look like /remind me of nelly yuki =)
Oh, fun! I admit, I would have liked to have worn a uniform when I was in high school — it would have made things a lot easier! Plus as you show here, there’s a lot of room to play with it. I think Victoria and Vada are my favorites, but I’m a fan of Constance too!
Ah, I love this! I miss uniform quite a bit, although I can’t quite envision anyone in my old school getting away with it. Or, to be honest, wanting to; the bottle green uniform wasn’t the most flattering of clothes!
Wow, I love this post. It reminds me that there is scope for some personal expression within my school ‘dress code’ (fancy word for uniform methinks!) of black & white. Now to have some fun with it again…
I’m so sad. I live in Denmark so i cant see Gossip Girl, and i really want to! Does anyone know a place on the internet where I can see full episodes?
Glad everyone is liking my school shenanigans….
Re: Style Bytes, honestly I haven’t a clue…. she went to Stockholm for a holiday right…maybe she’s taken a longer break… bloggers are allowed holidays ya know…
Such a fun post! I can’t wait for the new episode tonight…eep, Serena, what did she do?!
Still not a tremendous fan of the show but really love the way you’ve put those looks together! If only we’d been allowed to customize our school uniforms but alas it was strictly verboten to stand out.
Hi there susie!
You look really good these days, did you loose weight?:D
OMG! I cannot believe how cute & perfect you look on the pics!
Greetz from Vienna
This is amazing! I LOVE your outfits.
I am in love with those harlequin tights. Where are they from!?
I know what you mean… the only thing we could change in our uniform was the coat… not even the pullovers or the tights
Alongside the sequin robot post this is my favourite ever! I love every single outfit you made, but esp the all so sweet Victoria!
Liking Constance and the scarf as belt and headband.
I really love your style, amazing adds! you are the best!
a kiss and a hug,
hope to see you in my blog some day,
from Kira
this is amazing. i pretty much stretched the limmitatioms of my school uniform to infinity and beyond (and got threatened wth suspension several times as a result) but now i realise i didn’t take it quite far enough.
also, you too have the harlequin tights! thought i was the only one. slightly gutted that it’s now warm and i can’t really wear them.
i love vada! and the outfit in the last ones amazing…its how i want to look when i go abroad!
Love gossip girl too, these photos are so awesome. I missed my chance of buying that husam el odeh necklace when it went into the sale at Topshop! Really wish I hadn’t dithered over buying it now! You look fab!
You rock. I only attended a school with a uniform for one year and it was least lenient thing ever. We had regulations down to our monogramed socks and I once got in trouble for wearing the school cardigan and not pulling the collar from my school blouse over the cardi…
I must admit, Gossip Girl is sort of a guilty pleasure of mine.
Vada is my favorite! I love her tights. Sometimes, I kind of wish I had a uniform. It would make dressing a lot easier in the mornings, but also provide a challenge to switch it up. And it would be an excuse for buying more accessories.
fantastic! you really have to tell us about the marvelous coat you have in the last pic!
This is awesome – wow – the best fashion blog post I’ve read. You have great style & a fantastic wardrobe!!
Great post! Loved all the outfits, amazing styling!
Love the outfits, but gossip girl is appalling.
Hehe, this reminds me I really do have to go get a pleated skirt sometime soon- there’s a nice touch of crispness about school uniforms if one can just learn to discard the boring qualities we tend to asociate with them (my school uniform was pretty bog-standard too, but I did learn a love of blazers from there).
Just in case it isn’t clear, you look absolutely fantastic! And I love the little narratives with each photograph..
Cute idea. Also, scrolling through the pictures of you in different tights exemplifies how certain colors and prints can make the exact same legs look different. (and not always in a good way)
great post susie! i cant wait for episode 18. die georgina die! unfortunately i hear she’s going to become a cast regular *vomit*
very cute… but some large amount of contempt prior to investigations inhibits me from watching this series… don’t know why
This is so cute!
Oh my god, the striped and argyle tights are DEE-VINE!
Wonderful combinations, Susie.
Unfortunately my school uniform starred the colours navy blue and beige and when those two get together there is no way to rescue the outfit. If I’d been into fashion back then it would just have been depressing, so it’s probably a good thing that I wasn’t. Apart from the photos, of course.
Neat and fun. And – oh – I always loved the name Fenella!
this spread is amazing! love all your fun tights and your narrative!
Loves it 🙂 I like how you getting more and more creative with your posts.
i had to put on a school uniform as well back then but if only my uniforms could be modified like these…. brilliant! 🙂
Nice harlequin tights! You look great this way, in looks I’d never have anticipated.
When is someone going to hire you to be the stylist/costumer for a TV show?
most crashing down into the yard, scissors had probably a real because and foxes plants I remember turtles the boys
Brilliant! Totally brilliant!
I love your stockings! Omg!
good job, photoshop!! haha