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Champion of the Knockoff: ‘Gossip Girl’ Stylist Eric Daman

Eric DamanPhoto: WireImage

We’re breathlessly counting down to the season premiere of Gossip Girl, which is just one week away. But who better to cash in on its season-two debut than the store Blair, Serena, and Jenny never shut up about, Henri Bendel? The store unveiled its Gossip Girl–themed windows last night before a throng of shrieking tourists, teens, and children who could barely see over the velvet rope. (And those children had some fierce elbows, let us tell you.) Last to bound up the red carpet behind Taylor Momsen, Leighton Meester, et al was the show’s stylist, Eric Daman, who also styled the Bendel windows. Daman, who looked fabulous in a white vest with no shirt and thick tangle of necklaces, recalled one time shooting on the Upper East Side when Gossip Girl fanatics showed up on set dressed as their favorite characters. “They are showing up as Serenas and Blairs, in the outfits that they saw in the episode, standing there outside being like, ‘Serena, I’m wearing your coat! I’m wearing your coat!’ It’s brilliant. It’s amazing,” Daman said. “And these are the girls of the Upper East Side, who have super taste and waltz around getting whatever they want.”

But he asserts girls of that demographic — and Brooklyn resident Jenny Humphrey — aren’t the only ones with the means to cop Serena van der Woodsen’s label-heavy look. “It’s accessible,” Daman said. “You can get it at Nine West or you can get it at H&M and you can get it at Charlotte Russe, and it’s all knockoff. You can get the Ferragamo knockoff bag at the mall and still look brilliant. And you should. I think it’s really important that girls know that.” So don’t go pulling any Jenny-esque five-finger discounts, kids. A faux will get you through just dandy.

Champion of the Knockoff: ‘Gossip Girl’ Stylist Eric Daman