Blake Lively has done a lot in her acting career, starring in projects like A Simple Favor (which is getting a supposedly crazy sequel), as well as her appearances on the 2024 movie calendar in It Ends With Us and a surprise cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine. But for some of us, she’ll always be Serena van der Woodsen, “it girl” of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Lively made an appearance at a charity event this weekend, and she was giving Gossip Girl in a gold minidress that Serena would approve of.
Gossip Girl was all scandal and opulence, featuring the most enviable of 2010s East Coast celebrity fashion pieces on characters rich enough to own them and beautiful enough to look like walking magazine covers. Serena van der Woodsen was responsible for more than her fair share of Gossip Girl outfits I still can’t get enough of, and it certainly seems like Blake Lively may have dipped into her character’s closet for her look at the LACMA Art+Film Gala.
Gold was, of course, a favorite of Serena’s on The CW teen drama, and to see how well Blake Lively wears it, there’s no mystery why. The actress chose a Tamara Ralph Fall 2023 Couture dress made of diamond-shaped chainmail, with each plate decorated with small crystals of different colors, including gold and pink.
The dress makes me miss Gossip Girl so much, and I yearn to know how Serena and her frenemies’ fashion choices would have evolved over the past decade-plus. My God, I’d die for a tour of Chuck Bass’ current closet.
At least Blake Lively seems to be giving a hint of what her character’s style would be, because even for a show as scandalous as Gossip Girl (which it was for CW’s audience back in 2007), I don’t think even Serena could have gotten away with that gold chainmail showing off so much skin. I have no doubt Blair Waldorf would have something to say about that.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants actress did, however, pair the minidress with quite an impressive cape to help provide some coverage. A silk taffeta wrap billowed all around her in a shade of pumpkin that felt very “fall in the city” to me. She wore her hair down, with the side part sending a cascade of curls over one shoulder, and her playful pink heels were a perfect mismatch of an exclamation point on the whole ensemble.
I didn’t expect to get such a Gossip Girl hit of nostalgia today, but seeing Blake Lively don such a Serena van der Woodsen-coded outfit did the trick. After months of behind-the-scenes drama involving her latest film It Ends With Us, this fun look seems to indicate she’s taking a note from her iconic character — and Lively’s BFF Taylor Swift — and shaking it off.
Now I may have to embark on a Gossip Girl rewatch, and thankfully, I can do that, with all six seasons available to stream with a Max subscription.