Television Study: “Gossip Girl” and It’s Affects on Viewer’s Fashion

Abstract

In 2007, the CW network debuted an hour long teen drama entitled Gossip Girl. The program was based on the already popular novels of the same title by Cecily von Ziegesar (The CW, 2008). While this teen drama resembles the many teen dramas before it, there is a distinctive production element which makes this program stand out, the costuming. The styling of the program is the creation of Eric Damam, who ironically also was the stylist for the fashion forward program “Sex in the City” (Wharmby, 2008). In any given episode designer names such as Christian Louboutin, Tory Burch, or Chanel can be heard and seen on the various characters. When not in top designer names, the character’s costuming still present an unseen level of glamour and innovation. With so much focus placed on the wardrobe of the characters, it must be questioned what this translates to for the audience. This research will set out to identify whether the costuming of the Gossip Girl characters affects the audience’s personal fashion choice. In order to discover the answer to this question, three steps are taken. Firstly, a brief literature review will explore the scholarly work published in regards to television show’s affects on viewer behaviour, specifically on fashion choices. Secondly, a small content analysis will attempt to establish how important costuming is to the production of Gossip Girl. Thirdly, an audience study will give insight into how this importance of costuming affects viewers’ personal fashion choices.