IN THIS YEAR’S REBOOT of “Gossip Girl,” the latest Upper East Side queen bees try to knock the headband off its prissy perch. Zoya, an underdog character new to Manhattan, shows up at the fictional Constance Billard School wearing a knotted scarf around her locks. “She has a headband on,” scoffs the trendy upperclassman Monet. The implication is that headbands—as worn by Blair Waldorf in the original series that debuted in 2007—are over.
Not so fast, “Gossip Girl.” The reboot’s creative team might be eager to cut ties with the idealized Edith Wharton-inflected world of the show’s first incarnation, but they’re out of step with the zeitgeist. While a too-literal bow-band atop a preppy ensemble is certainly a relic, the statement headband is actually more pervasive than ever.
