HBO’s “Gossip Girl” returned to our screens on Dec. 1 for season two, bringing back our favorite Constance Billard students for even more drama. Judging by what we’ve seen so far – and glimpses of what’s to come from the trailer – we’re in for an eventful few episodes. Season two takes us all over the Upper East Side to the steps of the Met Gala, and even brings back an iconic face from the original CW drama: Georgina Sparks, played by Michelle Trachtenberg.
With each of our main characters well-established from season one, this go-around is all about diving a little deeper. “We really start to get a sense of who our characters are, what their goals are, and what they believe in,” Michael Zambrano, the series’s hair-department head, tells POPSUGAR. In that same vein, the hair and makeup in the new season are evolving (ever so slightly) to reflect this shift. “We see some changes in their looks, depending on are they going more for vanity, or power, or status, or are they going to seek justice?”
Zambrano and the show’s makeup-department head, Sheri Kornhaber, worked tirelessly to ensure each look represented the character’s feelings inside on the outside – but they had some help, too. “The actors were always part of the process,” says Kornhaber.
Ahead, Zambrano and Kornhaber give us a behind-the-scenes peek into each character’s look in season two of “Gossip Girl,” from how they’re modernizing Georgina’s look to the exact products they used on set (like the press-ons Monet can’t stop wearing).