In San Francisco, I drug my poor brother-in-law into every Pacific Heights boutique I could find. Inside this one establishment, I gamely sorted racks of $800 blouses and $4,000 coats, delighted by the creativity and craftsmanship of these exquisite garments.

Invariably I fell upon a stack of tissue-thin cashmere sweaters, each one painstakingly reimagined and reconstructed from vintage pieces by a California designer, Koi Suwannagate. Tiny mismatched buttons, layered bits of cashmere, machine embroidery, quilting, but still with clean, lovely silhouettes. Poor Richard, I went berserk.

Eye-wateringly expensive, they are so worth the time to drool. Go check them out (and look beyond the fashion direction, which, in my opinion, distracts from the garments).