Modern girls might see selves in 'Kit'

Despite her cloche hat, feed-sack dresses and obsession with a relicknown as a typewriter, modern girls might see a lot of themselvesin Kit Kittredge, the Depression-era living-doll in the newAmerican Girl feature film.

Blond-bobbed Kit, as played by Abigail Breslin in "KitKittredge: An American Girl" and based on a book character, issweet, smart and spunky.

Kit and her buddies spend hours each day in a treehouse making upsecret oaths of friendship. The rest of the time, Kit is bangingout letters on that typewriter, much in the way girls today areglued to their keyboards sending their friends e-mails and IMs.They wear metal roller skates instead of wheelie sneakers, but theresult is still kids whizzing down the sidewalks.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The style of the 1930s dictates that Kit wear long girlie dressesthat do look dated, but her headbands, floral prints and evenT-strap shoes are part of the 21st-century closet.

"The thing with the shoes is that kind of Buster Brown shoeswith the eyelet in the toe have been around a long, long time andthey continue to make them," says Trysha Bakker, costumedesigner for the film. "They're like jeans for a little girl-- it's just what they wear. It's what we associate when we say 'socute' to a little girl."

Bakker, who costumed previous American Girl TV movies set in 1904and 1944, says basic garments and accessories remain consistentover different eras -- it's the way they're worn or styled thatevolves.

However, she notes, girls are wearing more mature styles at ayounger age now, so Kit's shoes, for example, while appropriate fora 10-year-old in 1934, would more likely be worn by a kindergartnerin 2008.

Bakker also points to denim jeans, which have been popular sincethey were introduced in the 19th century by Levi Strauss. The stylequestion in the '30s, though, was whether to wear your overallsbuttoned up or hanging down. The low-rise vs. high-waist debatecame much later.