Rufus 2.13

[Vinnie Frevert]

Inseason three, Rufus marries his longtime love, Lily, and moves to the Upper East Side, and everything shifts. The father who once reprimanded his children for emulating their wealthy classmates now fits himself into that same world: His messy hair and scruffy face are neatened and shaven. His jewelry, save for an expensive watch, disappears. His rumpled plaid shirts smooth to crisp neutral or checked button-downs. His Henleys soften to luxurious sweaters. As his wardrobe adapts, his moral code does, too, loosening to survive on the Upper East Side, to maintain his marriage to Lily.

After reuniting with their long-lost son, Lily and Rufus settle into married life, their happiness undisturbed until Rufus learns what Lily really did last summer: she spent time with her ex-husband, William van der Woodsen, and even shared a kiss with him (3.12).

I don\u2019t know how to write a newsletter the week after a coup attempt, and I\u2019m not sure if I figured it out. I only hope this issue offers some needed comfort, and Rufus Humphrey is the best character to provide it: a flannel-lined hug and a plate of waffles.

After all, Rufus is the only somewhat decent parent on Gossip Girl: a nineties rock star turned Brooklyn art gallery owner, father to Dan and Jenny, husband to Alison. He plays the occasional show with his band, Lincoln Hawk (one of the \u201CTop Ten Forgotten Bands of the Nineties,\u201D according to Rolling Stone), but he dedicates most of his time to running his gallery and supporting his children as they navigate their Upper East Side prep schools. He acts as their moral compass, the hand that guides them back when they\u2019ve strayed from his values.

Unlike the show\u2019s wealthy, trendy female characters, Rufus has neither the pressure to wear new outfits every day nor the means to buy them, and so he often repeats pieces\u2014the same jewelry, the same shirts. (He even cooks the same foods, over and over: Bolognese, chili, caprese salad, and yes, waffles.) Rufus favors grunge and rock staples: plaid or Western shirts, V-neck T-shirts, leather jackets, cord necklaces and beaded bracelets, jeans. Like Nate Archibald, Rufus wears his shirts rumpled, buttons undone, but while Nate doesn\u2019t care about his clothes, Rufus really does: they\u2019re his identity, his status as a cool Brooklyn dad, a musician, an artist. Still, even in the early days, Rufus knows how to adapt his wardrobe to Upper East Side events, throwing on a polo shirt or blazer.

In the pilot, Rufus meets Dan and Jenny at Grand Central; they\u2019ve just come back from Hudson, where their mother, Alison, is \u201Ctaking a time-out from [her] marriage\u201D and working on her art. His children are both wearing touches of brown, but Rufus is fully embracing the Humphrey color: shirt, leather jacket, pants, even his cord necklace.

Dan invites his crush, Serena van der Woodsen, to a Lincoln Hawk concert; her mother, Lily, isn\u2019t happy about it. She and Rufus dated in the nineties, before she upgraded to more famous rock stars and more affluent businessmen. When she drops by the gallery, Rufus is wearing a denim cargo shirt open over a gray V-neck T-shirt, all the better to display his cord necklace and simple chain. His sleeves are cuffed, his beaded bracelets alongside a brown-banded watch: he\u2019s a musician, but he\u2019s also a dad, a small-business owner, his rock-star sensibility mixed with the practicality of a watch and slouchy khaki pants.

Lily accuses Rufus of using his son to get to her, but her behavior says the opposite: in the next episode, she asks Rufus to meet her for coffee, telling him, again, that she doesn\u2019t want Serena dating Dan. This time, Rufus is prepared for the meeting, even a little dressed up; he\u2019s thrown a brown pinstriped blazer over his plaid shirt and necklaces. He probes Lily about her current boyfriend but doesn\u2019t learn the man\u2019s identity until a few episodes later, when he\u2019s wearing the same jacket.

In episode six, Rufus attends a party with Lily, his brown blazer paired with a brown button-down, pants, and tie. The outfit is his most formal yet, but he won\u2019t give up his Humphrey earth tones. And Lily, for that matter, won\u2019t give up on billionaires: she\u2019s on a break from Bart Bass, a Manhattan real estate developer who can\u2019t quite commit to an exclusive relationship. Once Lily and Rufus kiss, Bart wants her back, his jealousy a motivator for monogamy.

Rufus has his own relationship ghosts to contend with: in episode eight, Jenny brings her mother, Alison, back home to Brooklyn. Rufus is angry at his wife for cheating on him in Hudson, but Alison has her own grievances: \u201CI was there for you,\u201D she says, \u201Cwhen you were all about your music, when you were on the road for months at a time. . . . My whole adult life has been about you.\u201D

Throughout the episode, Rufus wears a blue plaid button-down over a white undershirt, a necklace half hidden. His plaid shirt is pure Humphrey, but his cord necklace is gone, never to appear again. He\u2019s putting aside the relics of his rock-and-roll lifestyle, just as Alison once put aside her art to support him.

Rufus and Alison spend the next few episodes trying to revive their dying marriage. They run into Lily and Bart at the prep school\u2019s holiday bazaar (1.11), Rufus and Alison both bundled in brown jackets and scarves; Rufus will repeat his orange plaid scarf through the rest of the winter. Despite this outer display of unity, the Humphrey marriage is dead by Christmastime, and Rufus soon comes to terms with his feelings for Lily.

In episode twelve, he confesses his love, and Lily agrees to run away with him. For their phone call, he wears a green zip-up sweater and a Henley, one lone bracelet joining his watch. The sweater is a style he\u2019ll come to favor during his marriage to Lily but one he rarely wears in the earlier seasons. He\u2019s already making concessions for Lily, and yet she\u2019s unable to make them for him: Serena doesn\u2019t want Lily dating Dan\u2019s father, and so Lily becomes engaged to Bart instead.

As the season continues, Rufus\u2019s attention shifts to Jenny, who is trying to keep up with her wealthy classmates. Rufus thinks Jenny is ashamed of her background, and so he invites her friends to a birthday party at the Humphrey loft (1.14)\u2014a blazer thrown over his striped band-collar shirt. He\u2019s conforming a little, for the sake of his daughter, but he isn\u2019t quite letting go of his roots: The band collar and its close cousin, the Nehru collar, are embedded in working-class and rock-and-roll history, the Nehru collar popularized among white westerners by the Beatles, who appropriated the styles they saw in India. Remember the band collar\u2014while Rufus wears it a few times in early seasons, it becomes more significant in season three.

By episode seventeen, another Rufus piece emerges: this time, a black Western shirt, red roses embroidered below the collar\u2014not quite lilies but flowers all the same. Rufus is taping a concert special for VH1 Classics, his fellow performers including Lisa Loeb. When Lily drops Serena at the concert, her eyes just happen to meet Rufus\u2019s as he sings what is seemingly the song\u2019s only lyric: \u201CEvery time you walk away or run away you take a piece of me with you there.\u201D Bam! Rufus and Lily sleep together the night before her wedding to Bart.

The next day, Rufus appears in her dressing room, ready to help her call off the wedding. He\u2019s done his best to blend with the guests, another pinstriped blazer thrown over his brown button-down. But Lily isn\u2019t willing to take the leap, and they go their separate ways: Lily down the aisle and Rufus on a summer tour with his band.

We last see him on the tour bus, chatting on the phone with Jenny. Again, he\u2019s wearing a black Western shirt, but the yoke is blue plaid this time, the bloom off the rose. His focus is on supporting his children, even from across the country: Jenny has received an internship with Eleanor Waldorf.

Rufus returns from his tour at the end of the summer (2.2); he\u2019s wearing a blue plaid shirt and a new necklace, perhaps a souvenir from his trip. The first tour was a success, and he\u2019s offered a second; he forgoes it for more time with his children. By the end of the episode, he\u2019s still wearing plaid, but his necklace, like in season one, is gone.

Lily, too, is back from a trip: a vacation with her new husband, Bart (2.4). She stops by the gallery, and she and Rufus see a showing of Repo Man\u2014Rufus is a big Harry Dean Stanton fan. Later, she shows up again, this time at the loft with a DVD of Pretty in Pink, and Rufus gently turns down her attempts at friendship.

Her movie choice is fitting, considering that Pretty in Pink inspired Jenny\u2019s wardrobe. If Jenny is Andie, Rufus is Jack, Stanton\u2019s single dad with a penchant for plaid shirts and a deep love for his daughter, even if he can\u2019t quite provide everything she wants.

Jenny wants to pursue a career in fashion, even skipping class so she can spend more time at her internship, away from her school\u2019s mean girls. Rufus wants her to stay in school, though he once put aside his studies to focus on music. \u201CI don\u2019t want my children repeating my mistakes,\u201D he tells Jenny (2.5), even as he wears the same rose shirt from his concert taping, a marker of his continued music career. The roses echo the cherry blossoms on Jenny\u2019s dress\u2014like father, like daughter\u2014and foreshadow Lily\u2019s own appearance in this story line.

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