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" This morning I interviewed Harold Koda, the curator of the Met&amp;#039;s Costume Institute, for a piece that will run on the main site tomorrow. One of the most interesting things I walked away with was that the Met has reluctantly followed in the footsteps of some of its biggest-name donors by becoming a customer of select couture pieces. Koda said that houses have gotten wise to archiving the same way the museum has, and now hang on to their own pieces rather than donate them to his collection. It began with YSL, then Chanel apparently followed suit, and now he&amp;#039;s selectively shopping each season, rather than awaiting generous donations. And since fewer and fewer socialites actually own their clothes, it looks like the last of the great donations may have vanished, as well. A nice chunk of the Costume Institute&amp;#039;s budget is now going towards gowns, according to Koda\u2013those are the kind expense reports I really wouldn&amp;#039;t mind filling out...  A Hussein Chalayan dress, part of the Costume Institute&amp;#039;s archives  Left, Dior by John Galliano, and right, Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garcons, both part of the Costume Institute&amp;#039;s archives "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/news/a450/harold-koda-smart-shopper-4197/?src=global_footer>