It all boils down to how you feel about shopping. Is it your favorite recreational activity? Do you like to try on clothes before you buy them? Or would you just as soon say to someone in your social class "dress me," and then have her appear at your door two or three weeks later with perfectly coordinated outfits, just right for any occasion?

Think of it as the fashion equivalent of Tupperware or Avon, only for the well-heeled.

If you don't know the right people -- or don't read Town and Country, one of the few places these companies advertise -- you may never have heard of in-home women's apparel sales. The "wardrobe consultants," as the representatives are called, get customers for their private label clothes mostly by word of mouth. And with terrorists and snipers in the news, some women have a new reason for shopping this way.

"In the past 13 months, there's been a whole quest for security and safety," says Caroline Davis, president and CEO of the Worth Collection, a national direct-selling company based in New York City. In other words, customers like coming to someone's private home to shop.

The connection between the unsettling events of the past year and the flirty black shawl fringed with small mink pompons that fashion consultant Coleman Hooper displayed in her Owings Mills living room recently might not be immediately obvious.

Hooper, a vivacious woman in her 40s, sells for the Carlisle Collection, a New York-based firm that had $150 million in sales this year. Today she's working with longtime client Karen Ruppert, who is dressed in clothes from last fall's line, including slim brown suede pants, a brown turtleneck sweater and a vest trimmed in rabbit.

Ruppert, who is raising a family, volunteers at Garrison Forest School, is on the Women's Board of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and is president of her garden club, has stopped by to try on the clothes she ordered a couple of weeks ago from Carlisle's holiday collection. She won't say how many pieces she bought -- "I kind of overdid it this season" -- but they include a silk camisole and skirt in "Venetian pink" with a mushroom-and-pink hand-fringed velvet shawl, black silk damask pants and a white silk taffeta blouse. She also ordered a fur-trimmed jacket, an animal-print sweater and a turtleneck that will go with the suede pants she has on.

Some of the clothes she tried on as samples; others she simply guessed would look good on her. Not everyone would be comfortable shopping this way.

"The customer has to use her imagination and trust me," says Hooper.

Although most seasons' collections contain over 200 pieces, Ruppert says the one problem she has with in-home shopping is that other wives in her husband's company come to Hooper. The fashion consultant tries to steer people who know each other to different clothes; if they buy the same outfits anyway, she warns them to check with each other before they attend the same event.

A shopping friend

You get more than just the clothes when you shop with a wardrobe consultant. Hooper shows her client how the tiger-striped sweater would look good under last year's rabbit vest and helps Ruppert accessorize the outfit with a scarf. And that's another reason women like this kind of shopping: A savvy representative will make her customer feel as if they are two friends having fun trying on clothes together -- which they often are.

"I've really developed a nice relationship with those who shop with me," says Hooper. "I hope that it's enjoyable for my clients. It is for me."

There's a downside to that, of course. It may be harder to say no to a friend when you really don't see anything you want, as opposed to shopping in the anonymity of a department store.

"I will only buy something if it's a 'wow' when I try it on," says Debra Scheffenacker, who has clothes from several in-home lines. "The consultants know that." She's comfortable leaving without buying anything and says she never feels pressure from any of her three consultants.

Not everyone is so lucky. Karen Leland was introduced to a sales consultant by an acquaintance, which made it difficult to brush the woman off.

"She didn't ask me if I was interested, just said she'd love for me to come to her trunk show," says Leland, who lives in Baltimore. She was urged to come and look even if she didn't want to buy anything, to "leave your pocketbook in the car."

"I didn't know what to say; I was put on the spot," Leland says.

After the woman sent her a handwritten note and called her home several times, Leland finally made an appointment for the trunk show. "She was voracious."

An assistant called the day before to remind Leland of the appointment. By then she had decided not to go; but when she tried to cancel, she was told she would have to call the consultant directly. She ended up not going, and was thoroughly put off by the experience.

The best consultants, though, aren't arm-twisters. They tell a client if a piece of clothing doesn't look good on her; unlike a department store saleswoman on commission, they can afford to think long-term.

A wardrobe consultant has trunk showings of her company's lines four times a year. She may be a friend or the friend of a friend; the shows are by invitation only. You make a one-on-one appointment to browse the samples displayed in her home, and with her help order what you like -- perhaps only a scarf, perhaps complete outfits and all the jewelry and other accessories to go with them except for shoes.

Your wardrobe consultant will have a record of, say, the pair of pants you bought two years ago; and because the clothes are coordinated from year to year, she'll be able to suggest a blouse from the current collection to update them. In an hour, you could order all the outfits you'll need for the whole season. If something comes in and needs a minor alteration, she'll even meet you at the tailor's.

It used to be that a wardrobe consultant's best clients were wealthy men's wives who needed a new luncheon suit, but these days they are just as often busy professional women.

"I really think this consultative way of buying clothes is more relevant today than ever before," says Caroline Davis of the Worth Collection, which is one of the three biggest direct-sales fashion houses. "Women are desperately time-poor. They are more stressed than ever before. Businesswomen are saying, 'Please just tell me what I need.' And service in stores is so nonexistent, you have trouble finding someone to take your credit card, let alone help you."

Service, of course, is what's being sold here -- even more than the high-end clothes themselves. And you pay accordingly, with pants or a skirt costing $175 to $250, and a jacket, $350 to $675. Sales consultants are quick to point out that this is "investment dressing." Because the clothes are traditional in styling, they can be worn for years, updated with a blouse or accessory from a current collection.

Three leading companies

Caroline Davis is uniquely well-suited to talk about the phenomenon of direct-sales fashion merchandising. She's been involved with all three companies that now dominate the women's market: Doncaster, Carlisle and Worth. Doncaster's parent company has a second line, called Elana, of high-quality, stylish clothes for full-figured women -- a group traditionally neglected by fashion designers.

"These women have been so underserved," says Rosemary Downing, a local representative for the collection.

Of the three major companies, only Doncaster, a division of Tanner Companies in North Carolina, officially accepts returns. These are, after all, special orders that take several weeks to arrive. Unofficially, if you have a good relationship with your consultant, returns aren't a problem.

"If the customer is really unhappy, we'll work something out," says Ellen Richter Jarosinksi, a local Worth representative.

Doncaster introduced the direct-sales fashion concept 66 years ago with a Paris-inspired shirtwaist for Junior League women to sell. Caroline Davis, who was a designer at Doncaster, helped start the Carlisle line in 1981. In the early '90s, she left Carlisle and established the Worth Collection.

The new kid on the block is the Juliana Collezione, only seven years old.

"We went after a different market," says Phyllis Frier of Juliana. "A little more updated."

The New York-based company puts an emphasis on its European designers and fabrics to differentiate itself , but the clothes are still "classics with a twist."

Tom James, a menswear direct-sales company, has also jumped into the fray. Represent-atives, who bring swatches of fabrics to executives' offices, found that their customers' wives wanted clothes made from the same fabrics.

In the past couple of years, sales of women's apparel has expanded 20 or 30 percent, says Fred Anderson of Tom James. "We're now in the process of doing a ladies trunk show."

With the turn of the new century, Doncaster, Worth and Carlisle have updated their looks, introducing more casual and trend-conscious styles into the mix of traditional suits and cocktail party wear. In 2000, Worth added a more fashion-forward and less expensive line called W, and Carlisle responded with Etcetera. Some wardrobe consultants sell both their company's lines, but more often each has its own consultants.

Marshal Cohen of Fashion-world, a division of the market information company NPD Group, sees direct-sales fashion as at least one of the waves of the future.

Online fashion shopping, he points out, doesn't satisfy the need to touch and feel the clothes, nor does it offer an opportunity for people to get together.

"People don't have time to shop as they used to for fun," he says. "With this, the product is being brought to them, they're being catered to. It's an enhanced shopping experience. Now it's only high end. But we're going to see it gravitate downward to all incomes."

To learn more

For more information and a look at the clothes, you can visit the companies' Web sites:

www.carlislecollection.com

www.doncaster.com

www.elanabytanner.com

www.julianaonline.com

www.tomjames.com

www.worthny.com

To get in touch with a local sales consultant, you can call these numbers:

Carlisle Collection:

212-246-4275

Doncaster: 800-669-3662

Elana: 800-800-5878

Etcetera: 212-262-6432

Juliana Collezione:

601-829-9555

Tom James: 800-625-2228,

Ext. 2407

Worth Collection or W:

800-WORTHOK