Georgina Sparks may not have been Gossip Girl, but her wardrobe embodied that of actor Michelle Trachtenberg, who passed away at age 39 on Wednesday, February 26, at her New York City apartment. Her cause of death is currently unknown.
Her character, a scheming villainess with impeccable taste in clothes, is one of Trachtenberg’s best and most well-known performances. In 2022, ten years after the original Gossip Girl ended, she reprised her role in season two of the Gossip Girl reboot, which marked her last time on screen. However, it gave Us another look at how she manifested the antagonist’s arc flair and made Georgina a fan (and fashion) favorite.
The clothes were so fantastic, in fact, Trachtenberg previously admitted she saw no reason to differentiate her own personal style in real life. “I came in dressing exactly like Georgina,” she told the New York Post in 2015. “[Costume designer] Eric Daman said, ‘That’s exactly the character.’” She continued: “My go-to outfit is black leather leggings, black shirt. Everything that Georgina wore either ended up in my closet or was inspired by the things that I would wear.”
Trachtenberg described the fittings in a 2017 podcast with Vanity Fair: “There was a ginormous rack of predominately black clothing, which is perfect for me because I’m not the biggest color wearer.” The role was a career highlight because it revealed new layers of the actress’s talent. And, as Gossip Girl fans can attest, Georgina loved layers. “We really started with accessories,” Trachtenberg told the outlet. “It was a game to us. ‘What bigger necklace can we do for her?’”
At the time, Trachtenberg also revealed that Georgina “was one of her “all-time favorite characters; there was never enough bitch for her.” She added: “The more spikes, the better.”
Take a look back at how Trachtenberg put a sartorial spark in Georgina’s mean-girl aesthetic.
