As told to Stefanie Berry Stark

Sunday, July 27, 2003; Page M03

WHAT'S UP, DOC?: Very few dry cleaners, if any, have also owned a clothing store. I have. I'm a fourth-generation dry cleaner -- my grandfather started in the D.C. area in the early 1900s -- and my wife and I owned a clothing store for 10 years. There, I used a lot of the skills I had from growing up around clothing -- how to care for it, what fabrics were good, which would snag or whatever. After I sold the family dry-cleaning business, I put my 25 years of experience into a book, "The Ultimate Guide to Shopping and Caring for Clothing." Now, a lot of people know me as the Clothing Doctor [www.clothingdoctor.com], and I'm doing shopping and clothing-care seminars for customers at Nordstrom and have appeared on "The View."

SHOPPING CHECKLIST: My main goal is to encourage people to think about the care of their clothing from the moment they start to shop. Ask, "Is this fabric well-suited for me and for what I do? Will it wear well?" Then, before you reach the cash register, hang the garment, spin it around, and spend two minutes examining zippers, hooks, hems, seams, shoulder pads and buttons to ensure good condition.

DEALING WITH STAINS: Never rub a stain -- blot only, with a dry white napkin. This is for all clothing, but especially for silk blouses, neckties and tuxedo lapels. To avoid stains that show up later, always apply hairspray, perfume and deodorant before dressing and allow it to dry completely. Men should never wear a dress shirt more than once before washing it. If you wear a garment for five minutes and then store it without cleaning it, it becomes moth bait.

SPRING CLEANING: When choosing a dry cleaner, look for quality, service, convenience and price -- in that order. Don't be timid; show your cleaner all stains, fabric pills, snags, pressing problems and minor repairs. We spend too much on our clothing to not take good care of it. If you have a $500 suit and you take it to a cleaner that charges six or eight bucks, you get it back and maybe it's not pressed right or it's got another problem. If you pay $15 to $20, you're pretty much guaranteed that it's right. They're more expensive, but I recommend Parkway Custom Drycleaning (which I used to own) in Chevy Chase [8402 Connecticut Ave., 301-652-3377] and Prestige Cleaners in Silver Spring [9420 Georgia Ave., 301-587-9740], plus American Valet in the District [4519 Wisconsin Ave., 202-364-9440] for more moderate prices.