Though Gossip Girl is in re-runs and will not return to The CW until Sept. 1, the show's cast is spending the summer shooting the episodes you're going to concern yourselves with when season two appears this fall. In a brilliant twist of newspegs, this allows the show to be fair game on the culture beat year-round, which explains how articles like this one — about how the show influences the fashions that tween, teen, and twentysomething girls are buyings — get printed. That what S, B, or little Jenny wear impacts what young girls are wearing, and what the stores they shop at will be stocking, it of little surprise; designer Stefani Greenspan, who creates the Priorities line sold at Macy’s, Dillard’s and Bloomingdale’s, says GG "definitely" influenced her collection of "trim blazers lined in men’s tie fabric, oversized cardigans and ruffled plaid shirts with gold buttons."

The real Gossip Girl twist is that while designers are paying tidy sums to The CW to get their duds on the show's characters for some heavy hitting product placement, it's the incessant paparazzi coverage of the show — with cameras following them all over Manhattan and the Hamptons — that's impacting its "trend-ability."

Fans of the show don't have to wait until the fall to see what the girls will be wearing, since photos of the cast pop up all over the blogs within hours of their being shot, and the fan sites dutifully chronicle which designers are worn.

And while Serena's scarf or Blair's skirt might not be available to the general public until the fall, the photo evidence gives designers who aren't paying-to-play with Gossip Girl a chance to get a jump start on producing similar frocks to have on store shelves by the time Jenny's new bag becomes an It Bag.

This is also the curse of fashion week. While editors, buyers, and other insiders get a sneak peak at what's available in the coming season, bottom-feeding outlets (or even H&M and Target) get a chance to produce similar looking, and far less expensive wares that will be ready for purchase the same time the Tuleh or 3.1 Philip Lim designs hit upscale department stores and boutiques.

But this phenomenon makes Gossip Girl more accessible. Fans of the show don't have to spend $2,000 per outfit when mix-and-matching from knock off labels and discount lines can have them achieving the show's look for a mere three-figures. And while the labels actually paying producers to feature their clothing can't be pleased, the producers themselves should — nothing keeps the fans in line like being able to relate to the characters. And dress like them.