Faking An Illness Makes For Great Fashion Apparently: This Week's Gossip Girl Recap

For this week’s Gossip Girl recap I’m going to try something new and if it goes well I might stick with it. Here’s the plan: make the recap itself secondary while giving the spotlight to the clothes worn by the characters. How does that sound? I figure with the best couple broken up there’s not much earth-shattering Gossip Girl action to report on anyway. (Is it comical or is it sad that I find the goings-on of the Chuck and Blair duo earth-shattering? I’m going to go with comical for the sake of my ego.)

So, without further ado, what the heck was Queen of the Squatters Vanessa wearing for her first two scenes last night? Purple sequins!?! First of all, purple is Chuck’s color and is therefore off limits to all outer borough dwelling heathens. Second of all and as another general rule, sequins are not to be worn under any circumstances (1) before sun down, (2) on any day other then a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, and (3) more then once every two weeks. Though it is unclear what day of the week this episode begins on it is very certainly morning and I’m pretty sure this is Vanessa’s second sequin offense in about a week. So there. Vanessa is the pits.

Next! Serena looks hot and skinny in that long sleeved blue dress. Perfect for breakfast with the boy-toy, not so appropriate for breakfast with the fam. But I will let it slide because she at least chose a boob covering garment for once.

Jenny looks gother and gother every week. I love it. Also, she changes after breakfast into a second goth but sorta punk look. It is not as cool as the first goth look but she gets points for variety - black with black and black can become repetitive.

Also dining in style is Lily. Her pink taffeta breakfast dress with the zipper on the shoulder is amazing. I'm thinking Oscar de la Renta. But what is that under garment she has peeking out below her arm? It looks like a tank but surely the dress is lined. Why would anyone layer such a look? This one is a mystery to me.

At the Columbia gala for Dr. V everyone gets dressed up and there is a lot to report on. Serena's bandage dress with the Michael Jackson bejeweled shoulder makes her look fat and old. Also, Serena Shops A Lot should know that this MJ look was out as soon as it was in. Blair's red textured dress, on the other hand, is perfectly modern and young. Spot on, B - and congratulation on getting into Columbia as well. Later, as the party is coming to a close, Jenny get's found out for being a fake-oxy drug dealing brat in front of her dad. It is at this moment that we see her tiny Rodarte dress. It is lovely from the waist down but way too tight up top.

But Lily wins the evening for her belted gold to blue fade Prada dress. True it is not this season or even this year, but the Prada Fall 2007 collection was stunning and is definitely worth bringing back. So that's that. For the breakfast dress and the Columbia gala gown, Lily is crowned this week's style maven - that is, until next week.