Junior Monica Sallay uses Blair Waldorf from the TV show “Gossip Girl” as her main inspiration for her daily wardrobe

By Meher Ahmad
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I understand you’re very inspired by “Gossip Girl.” What first drew you in, the books or the show? The show, definitely the show. I didn’t even read the books before I saw the show. But it’s weird because when I first saw the show, I was at Cathedral, and it was like first starting, and I didn’t really know a lot about it, you know. I thought it was going to be another show that’s like O.C. or something. I decided that I wouldn’t watch it, and then finally over the summer I decided, you know, I needed a new style. I’m going to a new school, and I drew my inspiration from Blair Waldorf, she’s one of the main characters of the show. I thought that she would be a good candidate because she has brown hair, she kind of looks like me and she has great, classic style, kind of Audrey Hepburn, Jackie O. It’s classic, clean and different, most of all, unique.

Do you draw more inspiration from Blair while she’s at school or while she’s at home?
She’s put together always; she never gets un-put together. Like at school she wears a uniform, so it’s kind of different, and I kind of can relate to that, except our uniform was much uglier at Cathedral; it was so disgusting. It was khakis and a cotton shirt, like a knit polo shirt. But at Constance Billiard School for Girls, which is where Blair goes with her friend Serena and her other friends, she dresses in these really chic plaid skirts. They’re short, they’re really high-fashion and any cute white top (they can choose any white top) and a little tie at the neck. It’s very chic and very, very put together.

Before you started watching “Gossip Girl” this summer, what was your style inspiration?
I was kind of like Kate Moss, almost. I wore jeans a lot, and I was almost like everyone else, but it’s hard to describe what my old style was, you know. I can barely remember it since I’m so different now. But I was just like everyone else. I wore jeans; I wore t-shirts, but now I’ve kind of evolved my style into something different than everyone else.

Are you inspired by the styles on the show or the show itself?
Both. I love the show so much. It teaches you lessons you’ll never get to learn, I don’t think, unless you want to take the risk. It’s like the sex, the drugs, everything, the drinking; it’s like you don’t want to get into that stuff, so why not just let them teach you? And they have such an over done version of it, like they’re living rich lives and their parents are out of town all the time; they don’t pay attention to anything. They just do what they want anytime they want. They have their lives planned out for them by their parents, but they want to decide how they want to live that life. It’s like a fantasy world, and you want to be them. It’d be so different.

New York City is featured a lot in the show, since it is the backdrop. Is it one of the places you want to visit, or have you ever visited before?
I’ve never visited; I’m actually going over fall break for Teen Vogue Fashion University.

In the future, will you continue to draw inspiration from Blair, or do you see yourself drawing inspiration from something or someone else?
I don’t know. I think I’ll always keep Blair in mind because I just draw inspiration from her. Like you said, and its never going to go away, it’s always going to be there.

Do you order the outfits Blair wears on the show as well?
Yes, I do. I get them from Web sites; I just research it and stuff. One of the websites is gossipgirlfashion.com, and that was only last season. They don’t have anymore this season. Before the episode even airs, they’ll tell you what it is, and it’s really impressive. Like the first day this season airs, I had the dress in my closet, and the day after the premiere was, I wore the dress.