How closely do you pay attention to the looks that stylist Eric Daman so deftly pieces together for each episode of Gossip Girl? If you always examine each look intently — and I'm talking the type of discernment required to win a championship round of "Where's Waldo?" — you might have noticed that, on Monday's "The Fasting and the Furious" episode, the Beatrice Grimaldi character (Blair Waldorf's new royal nemesis) wore these gold-toned Alexandre Birman Python Platform Pumps with a Diane Von Furstenberg dress.
Stunning shoes are par for the course in the Gossip Girl, so what made these pump's appearance so noteworthy was that they were featured in a different colorway in the prior episode. On the October 17th episode "Memoirs of an Invisible Dan," Leighton Meester's character Blair Waldorf rocked the multi-colored Alexandre Birman Mixed Media Platform Pumps, which retail for $750 at Saks Fifth Avenue, along with a dress from the Louis Vuitton Resort 2012 collection.
Both of the pump styles feature glossy snakeskin uppers with cut-outs that yield a double helix-like effect, along with a double-layered platform and a straight stiletto heel. Aside from the difference in color (Waldorf's pumps incorporated purple, aqua, and acid green python whereas these blend together gold, yellow, and beige tones), the only substantial disparity between the two is the cork integrated into the mixed media style.
In a way, given Gossip Girl's trend-setting reputation, it's shocking that two such similar footwear styles would appear in back-to-back episodes but, in another way, it's a genial move — after all, the woman following Waldorf's style steps is none other than her envious, manipulative, scheming future sister-in-law. Perhaps Daman and the writers are sending us a message via footwear: shoe tastes aside, Blair and Beatrice may have more in common than meets the eye.
