After a Fashion

DÉJÀ VU We know we've been here before -- about seven years ago, when we decided to retire from designing, and we sold everything. Foolishly. Because about five years after that, we decided we wanted to be a designer again. Oh, well, you know how we artistic types are. That was two years ago. And here we are again, about to close our design studio. It's just that we're not really working at it. As an active designer, having a studio loaded with equipment, fabrics, trimmings, and supplies is a dream, but at this point, it seems a little more than vanity since the most we ever really seem to do is drop by to make a quick repair on something or spend three or four hours making ourself a new shirt. And those were rare occasions over the last year. We loved doing our two big fashion shows. We loved having hunky, handsome Will Wynn make his modeling debut in our show, doing a sexy striptease down our runway -- and what hath this magical collaboration wrought? Wynn on p.226 of the current Esquire modeling Prada. (Yeah, he's the best-looking of the bunch of mayors they chose to grace their pages.) We loved the glamorous women wearing our clothes. They were made for women with a point of view on fashion. That is why we were never concerned about what was hot and what was not, since we had our own distinct point of view. But mainly we loved the fabrics. We were never the kind of designer who designed a dress and then shopped for a fabric to make it in; the fabric whispered to us, sometimes shouted, telling us what it wanted to be, and we obeyed in slavish devotion. For us, designing clothes was never about money, but it was about the love of the game. Money would have been nice, and we definitely had many great successes, but financially, designing always cost more than it earned. We always wanted better equipment, more fabric, better fabric, because it was all about dazzling ourself first. If we loved it, we knew our client would. And therein was the ultimate gratification. But there's been a hollowness to that gratification lately, and it's evident that our heart's not really in it. So with so many other big changes happening in our life, we're going to retire from designing. Again. But we wouldn't rule out becoming the resident Depend-wearing couturier in our golden years at the Happy Homo Nursing Home.

PUBLI-CIETY Those faaabulous Brit imports Posh and Becks recently introduced his-and-her fragrances called Intimately Beckham. Sounds like it should be packaged with a speculum and edible panties. Besides, as an anonymous poster on Data Lounge (www.datalounge.com) so deftly points out, don't we already have something called Old Spice and English Leather?

COMINGS AND GOINGS We went to the final performance of Jesus Christ Superstar at Zach Scott last Sunday -- definitely one of Zach's greatest hits. And this particular performance was imbued with such passion and power that we were totally verklempt. Again. Joseph Melendez, Theresa Medina, and Janis Stinson? Faaabulous. John Pointer? A complete star. Hear his new CD, and see more of him at www.johnpointer.com... The Runway to Heaven fashion show is Friday, Aug. 24. Go to www.hearthouse.org... It's that Stitch time of year again, and Stitch Fashion Show & Guerrilla Craft Bazaar is seeking applicants. The show is Nov. 10, and the application deadline is Aug. 28. Details at www.stitchaustin.com.

*Oops! The following correction ran in the August 24, 2007 issue: In last week's "After a Fashion," we erroneously credited the Stitch Fashion Show photo to Seabrook Jones. The photo was actually taken by Farid Zarrinabadi. The Chronicle regrets the error.