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Michael Afshar, owner of midtown Sacramento clothing store DV8 Boutique, which has won local best-of kudos for its trendy threads, is closing shop. Sometime. Soon, he hopes.

Afshar, who was born in Iran and opened DV8 in Hawaii in 2002 after he was laid off as a pilot by US Airways, moved to Sacramento and opened the store at 26th and J Streets in early 2004. He was one of the first tenants in the MARRS Building, at 20th and J Street, when it opened in September 2007.

But now, he's eager to pursue his other passion: DJ'ing.

Spinning under the handle DJ Skittles, Afshar plays progressive and deep house, as he has for 20 years.

"I've been DJ'ing since 1989," says Afshar/Skittles. "I started at the Holy Cow in San Francisco, and I've played other places in San Francisco." He has also played in Toronto, Amsterdam, Cancun, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, New York and Iceland, he says.

"Spinning records paid my way through college and flight school," he says. Afshar is a licensed pilot and flew as a first officer for US Airways until he was laid off during the post-9/11 collapse in air travel. 

He was prompted to make the full-time switch to DJ'ing last fall, when he was signed to a San Francisco record label, Salted Records. But there's just one piece of business to take care of: Selling the store. 

"I have a buyer, but banks don't want to lend money," he says. "There are people with money to invest, but they're very cautious right now, with the economy. I don't blame them.

"We'll just have to wait and see."

The option of being an absent owner just doesn't work with a boutique, which requires a personal touch, says Afshar.

"Having someone else mind the store doesn't work," he says. "They don't put their hearts into it. I had someone take over the store for a month over the holidays, when I was DJ'ing in Eastern Europe and Istanbul, but they made in a month what I can make in a three-day weekend." 

Afshar said he had a moment in the Istanbul airport, with his bags at his side, when he thought about just walking away from the store and becoming a fulltime DJ. He'd done it before, escaping his native Iran as a teenager after its Islamic Revolution, and he's kept himself alive all over the world.

"I thought, 'I could walk away, I don't have to go back'," he says. "I got very close to that. But I chickened out. I have responsibilties to the landlord, to the bank. I couldn't do that." 

In the meantime, the store will keep selling its in-demand fashions - business is decent, considering the economy, says Afshar - and DJ Skittles will be jetting off to Milan, Italy, in late April for a series of shows there.

"It's hard work," he says of the long distance travel and late nights of DJ'ing. "But it's a lot of fun."

To check out DJ Skittles' music, visit his myspace page.