I Wear

From uptown to down, when Mary Jo Gordon thinks "arts community," she thinks globally. She was recently elected vice president of the board of the Fells Point Creative Alliance and runs Gallerie Francoise et ses freres in Greenspring Station. "Part of what a good art gallery does is involve the entire community with the arts," she says.When Gordon thinks fashion, she thinks in clean simple lines, and well tailored, finely textured clothes. The chances are good that Gordon, 53, will wear her usual, simple uniform at this Sunday's "Homicide Live!

Annette Stenhouse may be public relations director for Baltimore's recreation and parks department, but she doesn't come to work in jeans. Far from it. Stenhouse, of Bel Air, arrives at her office carefully put together, from hair and makeup to a classy suit to just the right heels. On the rare occasions "when people see me in a sweat suit, they're shocked or they don't recognize me," says Stenhouse, 36. Despite suffering a painful ruptured disc in a head-on collision two years ago, she's been faithful to a 5-year regime that has toned down her physique three sizes.

With a background in video production, and a career that has taken her to Maryland Public Television and WJZ-TV, LaTanya Bailey Jones of Charles Village understands the power of image.When Jones, 43, teaches the Baltimore Youth Television production course at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, she brings to her young students a strong awareness of the media's most indelible and harmful messages about appearance and brand names and status. It's crucial to "help young people be critical viewers and aware consumers.

Not only does Eric Parker get to work at the FBI in Washington before 7 a.m., he does it with smashing good looks. Parker, 31, is one of those intuitively fashionable men, who can sense change and trends without even flipping through GQ.And when everyone else catches up to him, wearing cowboy boots with a suit, for example, Parker, model-handsome, is off and running in a patent leather suit and amazing green boots. If the masses decide to dye their hair, Parker has already shorn his faux blond locks for a bold, bald look.

Iris Hill Green, a medical secretary and Middle River mother of two, knows the best time for shopping: on her lunch hour, when no one's pulling at her to detour into the toy store.During the work week, she'll sneak away to the Fashion Bug or White Marsh Mall, to browse uninterrupted. Green is also aware that looking good is a part of her job. "Doctors like it when you reflect their office," she says. Even during Saturday morning office hours, Green comes to work in a flowing summer dress made of her favorite fabric, rayon.

Amy Gjerde is that culinary rarity: a willowy chef. A former model, she exchanged Paris runways for cooking school in Baltimore and found her first restaurant job at Bolton Hill's jr. as an assistant baker.There, she also met Spike Gjerde, whose restaurant, Spike & Charlie's, spawned jr. They've been married 11 months, and Gjerde's wardrobe hasn't been the same since.What impact did life in Paris have on your sense of style?I grew up in York, Pa., where dressing options were limited. In Paris, I would go to young designers and established designers.

Helen Dale is an unstoppable, stylish 65. At heart, the assistant to the deputy secretary for community affairs at the Maryland Department of Transportation says, she is 9 years old. But that doesn't mean that Dale, who works a 40-hour-plus week, and is devoted to many good causes, dresses like a kid. Dale, who once appeared in inspirational films aimed at inner-city youth, is an avatar of "quiet good taste."When "you're going to work in a predominantly male environment, you don't want to look 'cute,' and you don't want to look like one of the guys," Dale says.

"Love me, love my hats," is just one of the rulings that Melanie A. Vaughn lives by. A former administrative law judge, and a mediation expert who now teaches at the University of Baltimore, Vaughn's words carry the weight of the law among her friends and colleagues. However, she has never allowed the seriousness of her profession to interfere with the splendor of her hats, or the rest of her wardrobe, for that matter.When she first joined a law firm, "I tried to be a little less colorful," Vaughn says.

Think Twiggy, circa 1997. That's Tracey Brown, Center Stage payroll and benefits coordinator by day and J. Leonard's Waterside assistant manager by night (where they call her Glamour Girl). Impossibly leggy, and inimitably attired, Brown, 27, keeps Center Stage's costume shop staff on its toes with her unique style.Today, she sits in the theater's second-floor lobby, wearing a Rayon-blend lime and lollipop-red patterned shift and red clunky mules and scarf -- tied retro-style around her neck.

Janet Henry once wore a corporate uniform for Legg Mason as a consultant in the company's real estate division. Now that she's a Columbia-based Realtor with Long & Foster, her wardrobe is in transition -- from straight-ahead suits to softer, more casual clothing that can take her effortlessly from the office to attics and dark basements.On Sunday, Henry, co-chair of this year's Cartoon Ball, a gala celebration of the Ronald McDonald House's 15th anniversary, will transform herself into Alice in Wonderland, far from that other land of open houses, closing costs and title searches.