etcetera SIDE GLANCES

If you don’t have time to shop store-to-store tor your spring wardrobe, you can still create one-with the help of a fashion consultant from Xia.

Xia, a division of The Tanner Companies of Rutherfordton, N.C., will send one of its 25 Dallas/Fort Worth fashion advisers to your home or office to help coordinate the pants, jackets and dresses in your closet and suggest new Xia fashions to complete them. She then profiles your figure type with a chart and tape measure so you

can select the right textures and lines for your clothes (and avoid costly mistakes). She also analyzes your skin tone to find colors that enhance your complexion as well as your proportion and lifestyle.

She advises you in much the same manner as an interior decorator would by showing you Xia fabric swatch booklets and catalogs. She’ll also bring sample garments with natural fabrics, covered buttons and full linings; Xia consultants recommend a coordinated wardrobe-three skirts, four blouses, two jackets, one pair of pants, two sweaters and a two-piece dress that will create 60 different outfits and mix with what you already have in your closet (scarves, $15 to $48; belts, $15 to $55; jackets, $115 to $158; skirts, $60 to $115; dresses, $88 to $148; sweaters. $36 to $95; and blouses, $42 to $75).

Xia selects fashion advisers who will work with their clients for two to three hours if necessary and who are confident and career-oriented-advisers who can relate to professional needs. (Xia Showroom, 13608 Midway Road, 8:15 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., 392-9880.)



With spring here, it’s tempting to just ditch winter woolens and experiment with the new season’s cotton and linen. But spring means cleaning and storing, too-caring for your winter wear as you pack up the old to make room for the new. If you want those natural-fiber sweaters and that new fur to be in good condition next year, take care of them now.



Clean cardigans live longer

Perfume, perspiration and food stains are fertile ground for moths’ larvae and their damage. Dust rots fibers. That’s why you need to clean sweaters before storing. Heed care instructions on labels, since different fibers such as silk, wool and cotton require different treatments. If you choose to hand wash your sweaters, be gentle enough to avoid pilling the garment and yet thorough enough to rinse out soap because remaining suds can stain. You can machine-wash sweaters if you use cold water on a delicate cycle. But for the sake of a sweater’s shape, avoid the dryer and hanger. Instead, drip-dry a knit by shaping it on a flat surface. And store it folded, not hung.



Avoid Mildew

In a warm, humid climate like that of Dallas during summer, clothes can mildew in tightly sealed plastic sacks or containers, so selecting drawers or pasteboard boxes is best if you choose to store sweaters at home. Under-the-bed cardboard boxes are available at various stores, ranging in price from about $1.95 to $3.95.



Minimize Moths

The common solution to a moth problem is to repel the pests by odor. That’s why cedar chests and cedar-lined closets work so well. Cedar chips, moth crystals or mothballs in drawers and storage boxes also work well as repellents. Some professional dry-cleaners mothproof clothes by treating them with chemicals and carry chemically treated Kordite or Fabritex bags for storing clothes made of natural fibers. But all of these methods only repel moths by odor and do not destroy their larvae, the culprits responsible for creating holes in sweaters. That’s why you should dry-clean a sweater before storing it: Dry-cleaning removes moth larvae. And it also removes protein stains, which attract moths even when you use mothballs to ward them away.



Stow pro-style

You may choose to store your winter clothes professionally. Some department stores will harbor your winter knits in humidity-controlled vaults (for about $20 an item). And some professional dry-cleaners store clothes as well as clean and mothproof them. Cool temperatures (50 to 55 degrees) and constantly circulating air in storage vaults allow clothes to “breathe” and prevent mildew, dust accumulation and hatched moth larvae.



Fortify that fur

Heat damages fur by cracking its hide and breaking seams, and dust rots fur as it does fabric. A professional furrier counteracts these problems by cleaning each fur, conditioning its hide to give it elasticity, glazing the fur to give it luster and then storing it in a climate-controlled vault.



FURRIER CLEAN & GLAZE STORE

James Hirsch Jacket: $17-$27 Jacket: $16

Furs Coat: $32 Coat: $22

Sakowitz Fur $25 to $50 $20

Salon

Sam Bifano $25 to $50 $15 to $35

Furs

Koslow’s $16.95 to $39.95 $15



Dallas weather is rough on the complexion. Humid summers and blustery winters sap skin’s moisture, and active lifestyles increase stress, tiring skin. So it’s no wonder that Dallas women work for their peaches and cream. Last year, they were the nation’s top clients of La Prairie skin care products. Dallas women spent about $4 million on La Prairie, a Swiss skin-care line that is unusual because of its cellular-based products and its medical clinic located in the Swiss Alps.

The La Prairie Programme proposes to help prevent wrinkles by keeping skin cells plump. Plump rather than flat skin cells have moisture and oxygen. The key ingredient to maintaining these plump skin cells is a placental cell extract from a superior breed of black sheep. The extract is not available in other skin-care lines and is controlled and contracted at a medical clinic. All of this significantly increases product cost.

But products are highly concentrated, so a little goes a long way. The large facial kit, which includes skin conditioner, day cream, night cream, wrinkle cream and mask (Nei-man-Marcus, $280) should last four months.

The skin care plan includes cleanser for dry skin (8.8 oz., $40) or a gel for normal to oily skin (3.5 oz., $25), refining lotion (8.2 oz., $45), skin conditioner (4 oz., $45), eye cream and wrinkle cream.



They don’t make them like they used to- for two years now, they’ve been making them better. Ber Del International Optics Inc. makes frames that are guaranteed for a lifetime not to break even if you stretch, flex, pull or toss them aside.

They’re called Sferoflex, and these eyeglass frames from Italy are durable because they have a spring-hinge (instead of tiny nuts and bolts) built into each temple.

Sferoflex frames can hold thick lenses and come in a variety of styles of plastic or metal, selling for $40 to $175. (Glenn’s Optiques, 7777 Forest Lane; Right Before Your Eyes, 2435 Promenade.)



Attention, all you aerobic dancers: Lotto Logos change color to match your running shorts and tank tops or leotards and tights. These white leather sport shoes from Italy have detachable geometric logos (in the form of inverted arrow heads) in yellow, electric blue, red, white, violet and pink. You get four of each color-Velcro-backed to attach to both sides of each shoe. You might want to get creative and wear two contrasting logo colors at a time-maybe four if you’re a bit unconventional. (Available at The Athlete’s Foot for $29.99.)



You have a mish-mash of mesh accessories to choose from for spring evenings. Whiting and Davis Co. of Massachusetts, the first manufacturer of metal mesh, makes cowl-neck halters ($250), sash belts ($45), ties ($33), bracelets ($11 to $16), earrings ($14 to $23) and handbags ($50 to $145), available at Neiman-Marcus, Marshall Field’s and Lord & Taylor.

The accessories come in metallic copper and silver and also new pastel colors for spring-shimmering ice blue, raspberry, pale pink and peach. Cher has all of them.

Whiting and Davis began selling mesh in 1876 (yes, mesh was a craze even then), and its products are guaranteed for life. That means that if your grandmother passed down a Whiting and Davis handbag to you and it needs repair, the company will repair it. You can even wear this mesh in a spring shower-it’s rain-proof.

Whiting and Davis mesh is made from solid brass rings locked to form fabric that is cut and sometimes seamed and lined by hand. The mesh is bathed, burnished with color and buffed, polished and coated to shine. Some meshes are treated with baked enamel or silk-screened with stripes.



Zandra and Estee will be out with their linen this year-in books.

You can read about Estee Lauder’s quest to build her cosmetic kingdom in her collection of memoirs, Estee (Random House).

Not only will she reveal some of her marketing wizardry, but she’ll also include accounts of hobnobbing with her royal comrades, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Princess Grace and the Begum Aga Kahn.

The Art of Zandra Rhodes (Houghton-Mifflin Co.) unfolds the fabric of that zany designer from London. Rhodes will interpret an assortment of her drawings, prints and garments influenced by American Indians, the Mojave Desert, Aztec temples, jigsaw puzzles and calligraphy.