As well as Laura Bush, whose Inaugural gown will reside in the Smithsonian, those clients include Wheel of Fortune's Vanna White, starting with a $3,500 cocktail dress ("I used to be in ball gowns and big hair," says White, "and now I'm in designer clothes"), and the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, whose new costumes he turned out last year. And though the side-slit cheerleader skirts might convey a different impression, Faircloth, 41, says he has a simple mission: "To quietly maintain a vision of a very ladylike appearance."
His classically styled, made-to-order clothes—which he often customizes with input from his clients—have a loyal fan in Bush, who was introduced to the designer in 1994, after her husband was elected governor of Texas. "Being thrust into the limelight," Faircloth says, "she wanted a very discreet and cordial style." Seven years later, though wooed by much of the fashion world for her debut as First Lady, Bush stuck with Faircloth. And his red lace Inaugural ball gown and peacock-blue wool swearing-in suit won kudos from one important critic. "[The President] said, 'You always do a wonderful job, Michael,' " says Faircloth, who continues to work with the First Lady (though she had her mother-in-law's favorite designer, Arnold Scaasi, outfit her for a recent European tour). "Then he looked at Mrs. Bush and said, 'And my Laura always looks so beautiful.' "
That's-the kind of praise Faircloth has always sought for the women in his life. Growing up in tiny Yoakum, Texas, Faircloth—the youngest of three kids of feed company manager Sig Summers Faircloth, who died in 1992, and his wife, Billie, a boutique owner who died in 1979—loved playing stylist for his mother. ("Michael wanted her to buy the flashy, more colorful ensembles," says sister Georgia Swadley, 55, a secretary in Arlington, Texas.) A natty dresser even at age 6—he was the only boy in his first-grade class photo wearing a tie—he spent his free time helping his mother at her store. At her urging, he enrolled in the fashion design program at the University of North Texas at Denton.
After graduating in 1983, Faircloth and his high school sweetheart, Donna Smith, now 40, married and launched their MIDON label in their Dallas apartment. Fans of couturiers James Galanos and Valentino, they built their clientele from the socialites they met while working as salespeople at Neiman Marcus. Soon their collection was selling at top local shops. Faircloth's life, it seemed, was unfolding by design.
But that design was altered by decorator David Davis. "I had been wrestling with the possibility of being gay," Faircloth explains. "When I met David [in 1988], I felt like I had met the person of my dreams." He and Donna divorced amicably in 1989—Faircloth and Davis, 41, now a reading teacher, share a Victorian-style three-bedroom in Dallas—but running MIDON alone proved too difficult, so in 1990 Faircloth became an assistant at a local fashion house. Two years later, he took up his current position as in-house designer at Lilly Dodson, a boutique catering to such Dallas luminaries as Sarah Perot, daughter-in-law of billionaire Ross.
With Faircloth's new prominence, orders have increased by 58 percent this year. Next up: a ready-to-wear collection set to appear in 2002. He may be busier than ever, but business is his pleasure. "It's never been about ambition for Michael," says Davis. "It's more a sense of accomplishment in making people happy."
Elizabeth O'Brien
Chris Coats in Dallas
- Contributors:
- Chris Coats.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
