Seeing *Your* Fabric Out In the Wild

So the other day I was picking my daughter up from kindergarten when I saw it: a lady wearing a peplum top made from the same fabric I bought at Girlcharlee.com for these Hudson Pants I made.

My hand-made pants

Yes, this is what some women wear to pick their kids up from school in the Bronx (she didn't have the matching mini): 

 And then, a couple days later (also on my way to pick up my kid from school), I saw another lady wearing a maxi dress in the same fabric (this is not her; I found this pic online after much googling):

Of course, I wanted to ask both women where they bought their "nautical striped" ready-to-wear, but neither looked especially open to questions from strangers so I let it be. The fabric is pretty cheap (it pilled after just a couple washes) so I'm guessing it was not sourced from a high-end designer.

Meanwhile, in my latest sewing class, one of my students brought in this fabulous toile du jouy, which she bought at Mood and had been told it was John Galliano. It has a brocade sort of finish on top:

We all loved the fabric and I was dying to see how Galliano used it. After a few minutes googling I discovered it's from Oscar de la Renta's Fall 2013 collection, though in a slightly different variation:

 You can see it's the same print, but with a black quilting-style finish on top rather than the brocade (apparently the same toile du jouy is available in different colorways at Mood NYC). My student was using this fabric for a skirt, which was clearly a good choice considering that same collection featured a multitude of skirts in similar toile du jouy prints.

We're lucky in New York to have such exciting, high-quality designer rollends at our disposal. Often you can find something that cost a fortune in ready-to-wear for a steal at the fabric store. A few years back I bought this bow print cotton by Marc Jacobs for just $5/yard from Metro Textile:

Curious to see what Marc Jacobs had made with it, I googled:

 Once I saw what Marc Jacobs had done with that bow print, I wished I had bought the entire bolt.

Recently I saw another Marc Jacobs print at Metro — this navy heavy weight cotton printed with his initials:

It was available in several colorways (at $5/yard), so I grabbed some for a friend's daughter whose nickname is MJ. I figured anyone with the initials MJ would be happy to have something special sewn with his fabric. Try as I might, I could not find any items made from this print.

Do you ever search to see what a certain designer has done with the fabric you bought? (Or have you ever run into someone wearing ready-to-wear made from your fabric?