Did Blair Waldorf Inspire Prada’s SS19 Collection?

Hey Upper East Siders, Grazia here. Spotted at Prada’s spring summer 2019 show during Milan Fashion Week, a cluster of models looking unmistakedly like Blair Waldorf.

From the headbands to the knee-high socks, Prada’s SS19 collection looks like it’s escaped from the Blair Waldorf’s wardrobe. The city shorts may be more to Serena van der Woodsen’s taste, but those babydoll dresses and pocketbooks are all Blair.

Though Serena’s golden magnetism and the Waldorf’s savviness can’t be denied, it’s Blair’s wardrobe that was the real star of the show. It was a cultural juggernaut in its own right, she was the fashion plate, it was the conversation starter. The meticulous details and fearless pattern and colour clashes created their own story arcs. The fashion rules it broke were echoed in Muccia’s latest collection. Blair the schoolgirl wore a twisted take on a uniform, much like Prada’s models that wore (albeit sheer) shirts and pleated skirts with sheer high socks. The otherworldly dresses, dipped in tie-dye and dotted with beads, were ripe for one of Gossip Girl’s gala. Meanwhile, the heavenly prints that looked like they’d been ripped out of the 1960s echoed the meticulous Lily Pulitzer patterns the Upper East Side’s Queen B so often wore.

See: The Most Blair Waldorf Prada SS19 Looks

Only true Gossip Girl devotees will know the real and very meta reason the show crept into Muccia’s consciousness. The time? The late 2000s. The place? Lily van der Woodsen’s apartment. On the wall of the core location of many of the CW series key scenes hung a Prada sign, and not just any but a large stretched canvas promoting the brand’s Marfa art installation.

It’s been over a decade since Gossip Girl first aired (I can’t believe it either!), which makes it natural fodder for Muccia Prada who brazenly enjoys a dose of nostalgia. Last season the Italian label dug through their own archives to reproduce popular prints for their AW18 collection. Then, in New York, just a few weeks ago, they hopped back on the nostalgia bus by reinstating their 90s Prada Linea Rossa sports line. Though this is the first time that the nostalgia bus has exited the brand's own archives, this is the type of journey we're definitely onboard with.