FASHION Pop-culture trends replace girlish garb

Young girls want to look like their big sisters or mirror what pop stars are wearing.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Women wear fur. Girls don't.
Or do they?
The line between girls and women's fashion is blurring. Walk through the girls department of any major department store, and you'll be hard-pressed to find "that adorable little dress with the lace bib" your mother bought for your 10th birthday.
Adorable is out. Gone are the frills, pastels and shapeless jumpers you were forced to wear. Modern girls prefer sophisticated black dresses. They go for long, form-hugging skirts. They look for dramatic touches such as feather collars, shiny (dry-clean only!) fabrics and sequins.
"Young girls look to pop culture for fashion trends," says Tina Hodack, creative fashion manager for L.S. Ayres in St. Louis, Mo. "So we've added trends from the juniors department -- low-slung pants, short skirts -- and made them accessible for girls."
Even basic cotton girls underpants are being edged out by the synthetic versions commonly found in women's departments.
Gone away
"We have gone completely away from the fluff and froufrou that we had to wear as girls," says Selina Eble, senior department manager of the children's division at J.C. Penney in Fort Wayne, Ind. "Now, the trends are moving toward looking at what Big Sister is wearing, what Mom is wearing, and trying to look more like them."
Adult, body-baring tailoring such as V-necks and slits can be found on girls clothes sizes 7 to 16. And some parents don't like it, says Eble.
"I've seen moms and grandparents who look at some of the items in our department and tell the girls, 'No, you're not wearing that. It's too grown-up or too low-cut,'" she says. "But a lot of mothers appreciate the fashions. So you get a mix of opinions."
All in the wording
To keep ahead of the complaints, many stores classify identical items differently in juniors and girls departments. At J.C. Penney, the sheer blouses referred to as "romance tops" in the juniors department are called "peasant tops" in the girls department.
"You'll have parents who think little girls shouldn't be thinking about romance yet," Eble says. "It comes down to how you actually word things."
Romance or peasant, the trend toward sophisticated clothing for girls is here to stay, Hodack believes.
"Face it. Girls don't wear lacy dresses to school," she says. "Young girls are very fashionable. They don't want their moms telling them what to wear."