Fabric

Isn't that your suitcase on the luggage carousel?The one with the yards of duct tape holding it together and the handle that's half torn off?Looks as though it's time for a new one.Though packing a suitcase is a grim but unavoidable part of traveling, shopping for that suitcase can be fun.You've no doubt noticed those confident travelers who breeze through airports wheeling neat black bags that glide smoothly over tile floors, asphalt parking lots, even...

Tweedy fabrics have resurfaced in the world of men's fashion. The timing seems right, as men of the '90s become secure and comfortable with warm and fuzzy feelings as well as fabrics. For a while there, the man of style had to choose between two tough camps. He could turn himself out as a slicked-up banker or hard-shelled biker -- difficult roles, for the sensible man looks for comfort rather than aggression in his wardrobe. There was that relaxed option of jeans and sweater, but something in this fall's fashion air has men looking for something different for easy-dressing days.

There has been a major breakthrough -- largely unheralded as yet -- in the upholstered furniture marketplace: sofas and chairs covered in two -- or more -- fabrics.Furniture has, at long last, been freed from the limitations of the single-fabric rule. This also means that, in terms of sheer variety, there is suddenly a much broader selection of furniture available. The potential for finding something that suits you is far greater than it was just a year ago.The pieces are just turning up on the new-product pages.

For the first time in U.S. history, the suburbs will account for th majority of votes cast in a presidential election. This is the first in a periodic series of four articles about the residents of Catonsville, part of the most sought-after segment of the American electorate this year.If George Bush and Bill Clinton campaigned door-to-door in Catonsville, stopping to chat on the wraparound porches in stately Oak Forest or sipping iced tea on the decks of Ellicott Mills, they could gauge the mood of voters by a single word:Fear.

Beneath its two-story-high cathedral ceiling, Jack Lenor Larsen's living room in Long Island, N.Y., could have felt too vast TTC for comfort. Instead, it's almost intimate because Larsen upholstered the entire space, straight to the ceiling's peak, with straw-colored Egyptian damask.Interior designer Marjorie Shushan also grappled with visually cool surroundings: a Manhattan apartment with no distinguishing architecture. To give the place character, she assembled an orchestra of textures: silk taffeta on the sofas, antique tapestry on the ottomans, 18th-century embroidery on the pillows.

The first week of Wimbledon was played under sunny skies, much to the disappointment of workers at W.L. Gore & Associates, but they finally got what they were wishing for this week when the skies opened up and it started sprinkling. That's when a new retractable roof - made of fabric created by Gore workers in Cecil County - was closed over Centre Court at All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, making for indoor play for the first time since the tournament began in the 1870s. "We were praying for rain and it finally came," said Tom Kelmartin, a product specialist for the company.

Passersby outside Charles Street's Gallery International last week might be forgiven for not quite knowing what was going on inside: Was it an art exhibition or a fashion show? Peering through the glass door at the entrance, one could see half a dozen department-store mannequins artfully draped in what appeared to be colorful, if bizarre, couture. Closer inspection, however, revealed that these "garments" were actually stuffed fabric sculptures cleverly stitched into shapes resembling various body parts.

If only the world had more Gwendolyn Biddle in its midst, traveling far and wide, learning native dances, teaching villagers how to sew, and in general, expressing fascination with those who live differently than she does. The world would be a much more peaceful - and inventively dressed - place. Since the early 1960s, Biddle, 75, has spent as much time as possible wandering the globe, from Nepal to the Amazon to remote Guatemalan mountain towns. As a child, her mother often took her on the Washington street car past the city's many embassies, where she was beguiled by foreign flags and insignias.

Let's say it's a dark and dreary Saturday and you wake up with an urge to redecorate. What can you accomplish by dinnertime? If you have Anne McKevitt's Style Solutions ($29.95, Clarkson Potter), the answer is a lot. A bed canopy, for instance, is a simple project. All you have to do is attach brass curtain rings to your ceiling. Loop filmy white fabric through the rings, knot it at each corner, and you have flowing drapery and the illusion of a four-poster bed, all before the 6 o'clock news.

Gyleen X. Fitzgerald scans the fabric pieces scattered around her studio. She selects some material, walks to the window and opens the blinds. She sits in a chair and threads a tiny quilting needle, working it with her nimble fingers through the blocks of fabric. "I hand-sew about five hours a day," the Churchville resident says as she turns her chair and props her feet on the windowsill. "I'm one of the few people that can't wait to turn 55. Eight more years for me, and I retire. Then my quilting business will be my full-time job."