The recent closing of his DV8 Boutique in Midtown was rough. But Michael Afshar doesn't have time to dwell on that.

He's too busy DJ'ing his way through Europe right now. Considered by some to be a pioneer of San Francisco's underground house scene, Afshar — who entertains under the name DJ Skittles — is in St. Petersburg, Russia, after gigs in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Soon, he'll be spinning tech and electro house music in Moscow and Ukraine.

"I have been playing in different countries every week now," he e-mailed in between gigs. "I had played in many venues in the world in the past. This is me going back to one of the things I love the most: music and flying in airplanes."

The former U.S. Airways pilot ran a trendy clothing store in Midtown for about five years. He was one of the first tenants in the Marrs Building, once home to California Department of Transportation offices before being renovated into a blocklong, upscale retail space that opened in September 2007.

Anchored by Lounge on 20 at one end and Peet's Coffee & Tea on the other, that block of 20th Street, between J and K streets, is now one of the hottest in the central city.

But the even constant foot traffic wasn't enough to help Afshar's boutique survive the recession. Sales dropped 40 percent last year when state cutbacks hit and the full impact of the real estate crash was felt, he said.

Afshar opened the first DV8 in Hawaii in 2002 after being laid off by U.S. Airways. He moved to Sacramento and opened a boutique here in 2004, later moving to the Marrs Building.

Afshar was a good boutique operator who knew what he was doing, said Marrs Building owner Michael Heller of Heller Pacific.

But the store's expensive threads just weren't selling.

"Who's buying $150 jeans in this market? Nobody," Heller said. "His product didn't make sense."

Although some people had been willing to pay that much for jeans just a few years ago, Heller said.

"It's a rugged market out there, and people are watching their pennies," he added.

To cope, Afshar added less expensive items and reduced prices on 80 percent of his inventory. He laid off everyone, including the window cleaning company, and sold all of his denim at cost for awhile. But it wasn't enough to keep the store open.

"As a clothing retailer, we were bleeding — the same as all major retailers, like Macy's, JCPenney, Nordstrom and the rest," he said.

The store lost more than $100,000. Afshar signed over the lease on the 1,000-square-foot space to the building owners.

The struggle with the boutique pushed him full time into a profession he's pursued for 20 years. But here, Afshar said, he is just one more underappreciated and underpaid DJ.

"In Sacramento, they bring DJs from outside, but they never tap into local talent," he said.

A native of Iran, Afshar said he's finding that the industry is more stable in Europe and Asia than in the United States.

Now, he's traveling the world as a DJ. He said he makes it work by networking with other DJs and getting support from a booking agent and record label. People have listened to him spin music on his MySpace page and at clubs from Kuala Lumpur to Iceland. A CD for Salted Records is in the works, Afshar said.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.