Children of couture-clad mothers and aunts and grandmothers disdained their legacy and donated these items. Volunteers were indifferent, tagging the merchandise at low prices and tossing them on racks where they would swing month after month, snubbed by the impoverished and most foraging of bargain hunters. The couturiers fell into public obscurity: Jean Muir, Pauline Trigere, Rafael, Madame Gres, Donald Brooks, Gloria Scherrer, Hanae Mori, even Chanel by CoCo. Treasure hunters would rummage and purchase an item that triggered a girlhood memory of an aunt, their mother, a cousin, or a movie star, whose panache was evoked by this clothing. They would hunt for the perfect piece to take apart and study, re-construct couture, and make and update patterns from the pieces. It was no longer...