I think it's just like foraging, that's a very good analogy.

I bought a lovely 60s mushroom hat in mink in the same shop, lined in silk like a very expensive tea-cosy. When I took it and the jacket to be cleaned at Melbourne's last furrier (second-hand furs only now, but a lot of business in remaking them), he knew the label. It was a fancy, high-society milliner decades ago, and his first job as a lad was there!