The New York Times writes today about the big impact that New York teen soap Gossip Girl has had on the fashion industry. Sure no one really watches the damn thing, but somehow legions of girls, having gawped at the show's fashions, have run shrieking to the internet to purchase fancy handbags online or trundle, ripped-out pages from magazines clutched in hand, up to their favorite boutique to wrap a super chic kilt around their processed-food-fed hips. It's truly a sensation! But just as Chuck would say to some lovelorn young lady: baby, you're not the first. Yes indeed movies and television have long dictated new fashion trends, whether on the design or the commerce end, for years and years now. After the jump take a look at a few other bits and pieces of the sartorial world that were influenced by those flickering images.

Michael Kors Mad for Mad Men
Orange-faced designer Michael Kors recently unveiled a line of little cardigans and suits that were inspired by the 60's-set drama Mad Men. If you buy $350 worth of merchandise, you get a free Mad Men DVD.

Project Runway and The Aviator
On the first season finale of Project Runway finalist Kara Saun debuted a collection of clothing inspired by Martin Scorcese's film The Aviator. Goggles! Fur! Weird caps! She, um, did not win.

Flashdance and the Ruined Sweatshirt
When that big-haired girl from PIttsburgh put on her jazzercise clothes to go dancing, the outfit included a sweatshirt with the neck hole cut open and the cuffs cut off. And then the rest of the nation did it themselves, looked in the mirror at the sweatshirt falling off of their shoulders and said "what a feeling!" It's a look that's really come to define 80's fashion.

Clueless and 90210 Empower Young Ladies
Sure kids were always rich and spoiled, but Clueless the movie and its slightly older TV cousin 90210 fully ushered in the era of shopping, specifically for expensive clothes, as sport. Though Clueless was a satire, not everyone got it and decided that they'd like to be clothes-obsessed and as catty about it as possible. Kids didn't just ask for a credit card anymore, they demanded one.

Daisy Dukes A Go Go!
Tiny short short jean shorts. They were a staple of 70's southern-fried camp-fest The Dukes of Hazzard. Rather than laugh the look off as silly TV creative license, young ladies nationwide snipped their jeans (paving brave ways for the next generation's Bealsaphiles!) and strutted around with their asses hanging out.

I can understand being inspired by what people are wearing on a TV show or in a movie, I mean where else can we emulate from, but some people take it so literally! Please don't wear kilts! Or carry muffs! It would make me upset. Some people, though, do realize that the whole thing is just a little bit false: "Sometime you see these girls from Brooklyn carrying Valentino bags that cost $3,000," says a 26-year-old admin assistant of the Gossip Girl fashion mania. "That makes the show a little irritating." Brooklyn? There's no such thing as fancy in Brooklyn.