(Cover) - EN Fashion - Jessica Szohr recommends investing in designer shoes and bags, but prefers the rest of her outfit to be vintage inspired.

The stylish actress is regularly seen wearing the latest designer fashion in her role as Vanessa in the hit US television series Gossip Girl, but she says she actually prefers to wear different clothing when shes not working.

Jessica insists she finds many of her favourite outfits in New Yorks vintage stores, or from the second-hand section at the flagship London store of the British retailer Topshop.

Ill splurge on shoes or a bag, or a good pair of jeans, but with sweaters and tops and stuff, Id usually like them to be vintage. I like Ina in Brooklyn for vintage and Topshop in London, she told the British edition of Glamour magazine.

The 25-year-old actress admits she keeps clothes for a long time before throwing them away, and says she recently re-discovered one of her favourite items of clothing from her high school days.

Jessica was shocked to discover that her mother was about to turn the skirt which she had purchased from American retailer Anthropolgie into a pillow, and begged her not to.

I rediscovered a skirt I bought from Anthropologie during high school, its bright green with big yellow and red flowers its like a painting. My mom just pulled it out of the garage to make pillows with, but I stopped her! laughed the starlet.

Jessica says she also has a favourite old black skirt which she often wears because it goes with so many things, and says she cherishes a vintage purse her mother bought her.

I have a black skirt that I got in New Orleans that I can throw on with anything and an old vintage purse my mom gave me. I live in these things, she confessed. (C) Cover Media