If at Once You Don’t Succeed. . .

RELIC OF THE WEEK: Mikhail Gorbachev’s face is now appearing on a color-zapped T-shirt, along with the words “Honey, I Shrunk the Party” at Homeworks, in Santa Monica. But Homeworks owner Randy Iwata says the shirts aren’t really new. He’s had them sitting around for about a year. Back then Gorbachev wasn’t as successful at diminishing the Communist Party as the T-shirts predicted.

“We couldn’t sell them a year ago, so we hung onto them. They just became politically correct again,” explains Iwata. He’s got a few of the $14, 100% cotton shirts left in sizes medium, large and extra large.

DEAR HOT: To look halfway up to date in the exercise classes I attend, you’ve either got to show a lot of skin--or wear one of those thong-style leotards that leave your backside looking like a balloon animal. Is there anything out that’s semi-modern but not so explicit?

HOT SHOPPER: The Marika top with the arrow graphic and striped bike shorts (pictured, about $22 and $26 respectively) are modest enough to make it into an Amy Grant video. In the Los Angeles area, they’re available at Sport Chalet, Bullock’s, Oshman’s, L.A. Sporting Club, Alberts Hosiery.

INHALE DEEPLY--FOR A GREAT CAUSE: Tracey Ross, the Robertson Boulevard clothing and accessories shop where you might bump into shopping champs Julia Roberts, Andie McDowell or Madonna, is hosting a perfume-a-thon to benefit AIDS Project L.A. this weekend.

Today, Saturday and Sunday, Eleonora Manzolini, distributor of Olfattoteca Personalized Perfumes, will offer customers a chance to create their own fragrances. A computer program, designed by Italian master perfumer Giovanni Daga, determines a personal scent according to an individual’s physical characteristics, psychological type, lifestyle preferences and other traits.

The program comes up with three blended fragrances and one singular floral scent for each customer, who then has several options: continuing to modify the scent (from a wide assortment of essential oils and other non-chemical substances), purchasing a resulting perfume at anywhere from $40 to $100 an ounce (depending on the blend), concocting a fragrance without computer assistance or forgetting the whole thing altogether.

According to Ross, all the proceeds from weekend sales will benefit APLA and if there’s enough customer response Olfattoteca personal perfumes will be available on a regular basis.