On screen he is synonymous with uber-preppy three piece suits, bow ties and slick shoes.

But off screen, our favourite Gossip Girl villain, Chuck Bass – aka British-born actor Ed Westwick - wasn’t always so stylish. In fact, back in the day as a young man growing up in suburban Stevenage, Ed made a number of sartorial mistakes that he bitterly regrets to this day.

Such as? Over to you, Ed. “I had a Moschino hat with different coloured lollipops on. I used to rock that one off to the side – I was a proper rude boy,” he told Grazia in an exclusive chat last week. “That is the one for me to be embarrassed about now. It is still in my mum and dad’s house, stuck in a drawer somewhere.”

And he also had a bit of a thing for Nike TN Air trainers and Levi jeans. “I always loved Levi’s, always had the 501s,” he explained. “As soon as one pair wasn’t doing it for me I was always rushing out to get a new pair. I always had the blue, the black, then maybe another pair - sometimes I could even pull off the white ones!”

Thankfully, now, Ed has got a bit more of a clue, citing uber-cool J Lindeberg as his favourite designer after picking up tips from the experts.

“As I moved up to New York and got involved with Gossip Girl it was inevitable that my fashion consciousness was going to open up even more,” Ed says. “My character goes hand-in-hand with fashion. I definitely think I have got more of an eye for it now. Working with different stylists you can see little bits of what you like and kind of add it in all together.”

We grabbed scrummy Ed for a chat while in the midst of a photoshoot to promote his new venture with Nokia, which give two lucky people the chance to star alongside the actor in a short film being shot in London entirely on the new N8 device.

Still, despite the fact that Ed admits his GG costars Chace Crawford and Penn Badgeley get a touch of the green-eyed monster when his wardrobe is unveiled on set, his sartorial choices pale into insignificance next to those of his female co-stars – namely fashionistas Blake Lively and Leighton Meester -

“The girls get sent 150 times more stuff sent to them. They get racks and racks of bags and jewellery and purses. That is the good thing about being a girl, I guess!”

Hear, hear!!!!

- Laura Benjamin

Next week, you can star with Ed in ‘The Commuter’, a short film bought to you on the new Nokia N8, visit www.starwithed.com from Monday September 6th. The N8 allows you to film in HD, and is available from the 1st October