Nancy Drew, style stalker

NANCY DREW looks darn good in knee socks for a 77-year-old. In fact, she looks younger now than she did when she was first introduced to America in 1930.

Sixteen-year-old teen star Emma Roberts, with long straight light brown hair kept out of her eyes with headbands, a wide smile reminiscent of her Aunt Julia's and several pairs of penny loafers, is the current embodiment of the young sleuth.

She hits the big screen in the Warner Bros. film "Nancy Drew" on Friday.

But when the first Nancy Drew debuted on the book jacket of "The Secret of the Old Clock," she covered her much-blonder hair with a cloche hat, wore a sophisticated skirt suit and heels.

In 1959, when that first book was updated for the next generation, Nancy's hair was more of a bouffant and her dress was a slim-cut, knee-length green sheath.

All these versions of Nancy - and lots of other Nancy's in between - have a style that is best defined as classic. But finding a way to capture her look for a 2007 movie wasn't as easy as that may sound.

"Everyone has in their mind who their Nancy Drew is. She's been around so long, she's iconic," says Jeffrey Kurland, costume designer on the Warner Bros. film. "It's an interesting problem to address the different generations. She's been around since the '30s and reprinted almost every decade, so everyone has had a slightly different picture."

Kurland says he tried to put the essence of each one of those looks into this one.

"You don't look at her and see her in period clothes, but they're not contemporary clothes. They're Nancy Drew clothes."

That means she's always neat and proper - and never a fashion victim.

"I can't think of anything Nancy has worn over the years that also were absolute 'dont's' for now," Kurland says.

In fact, when the new friends she makes in the movie take her to a chic boutique for a makeover because they think Nancy's style is outdated and boring, the saleswoman compliments the young detective's rust-colored drop-waist dress with slim riding belt details and a cropped dark green jacket. She has less-kind words for the other girls.

In the new movie, Nancy wears a lot of plaid, including a drop-waist minidress that has a little bit of a '60s vibe and a cool shiny double-breasted trench coat - an item every good detective should have.

"Plaid is iconic to Nancy - it's grounded in Americana," says costume designer Kurland. Even though Nancy is transplanted to Los Angeles in the movie, she remains a small-town girl at heart.

Nancy also wears skinny jeans rolled up to be pedal pushers and peacoats, but she knows when to pull out a party dress, too.

Kurland says he was guided by Nancy's sense of etiquette and her innate practicality, which he contrasted with the other girls, with their low-rise tight jeans, sparkly cell phones and oversized sunglasses.

"They're comfortable to girls who wear them now but Nancy wouldn't even think of them," he says.

"They wouldn't make sense to her and there's sense to everything she does." *