The Latest in Street Smart

The Show: “21 Jump Street” (Monday, 8 p.m., KTTV)

The Set-Up: Undercover police officers posing as students infiltrate high schools and colleges to solve crimes. Teen heartthrob Johnny Depp (pictured) stars, with Peter DeLuise, Dustin Nyugen and Holly Robinson as other plainclothes officers. Steven Williams plays the foursome’s captain.

The Look: It runs the gamut from rough and raggy to GQ magazine chic, because the key players dress to blend with their ever-changing surroundings. One week Depp and company might hang with runaways, wearing tattered jeans and flannel shirts. The next, Depp could sport a layered look, complete with white Hanes T-shirt, fit for the fashion pages, as he joins a well-paid juvenile theft ring. Usually, costumer Emma Trenchard outfits the undercover foursome in urban street chic that walks on the wild side. Always, the correct earrings are as crucial for Depp (he wears several at a time, only in his left ear, and prefers small hoops) as they are for Robinson. (Long, dangling, ethnic styles are her favorite these days.)

The Stores: Trenchard shops the boutiques and department stores in Vancouver, British Columbia for the hourlong drama shot on location there. Woodward’s and The Bay (which Trenchard compares to Bullock’s) are her best sources. In L.A., she combs Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom.

The Program: The stars need doubles of almost all their well-worn outfits. (It’s rough out there). So, Trenchard buys two or more of many things and artificially “ages” them. Her costume assistants do the dirty work, hanging out in the laundry room washing, tearing and dying new blue jeans, T-shirts and denim jackets until they look tattered. Trenchard does patronize thrift shops for unusual shirts, but only when doubles aren’t needed.

The Payoff: Outfitting the show’s characters in average-Joe costumes, satisfying the actors’ personal taste at the same time, is a tall order. Trenchard says Nyugen, for example, would rather wear high fashion sportswear. But even he gets the jeans and T-shirts treatment that is the soul of this show. Trenchard believes versions of the look are right for all these street smart types. “There aren’t any pretty boys or pretty girls,” Trenchard says of the cast. Except, of course, for lady-killer Depp.