“In an otherwise bleak retail scene, consignment is a thriving area,” Ms. Fluhr said, noting that her business is 30 percent ahead for the first four months of 2008. She added that the extravagant prices of new designer fashions and the influx of European visitors scouring New York for bargains have contributed to the growth.

“People are really resenting designer prices at conventional stores,” said Ina Bernstein, the owner of Ina, the designer resale chain in Manhattan. “In a way, that’s why our business is up.” She said that sales are ahead by 15 percent from January through April at each of her five boutiques.

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Vicki Haberman, who sells privately and through a Web site, ascribes a heightened interest in consignment shopping partly to consumers’ apparently unquenchable appetite for luxury labels, even those that are gently worn. “Every time you open a magazine, you see somebody wearing a quote-unquote vintage designer gown,” she said. “Shopping vintage and consignment has lost much of its stigma and become mainstream.”

April was a record month for Ricky’s Exceptional Treasures, a luxury resale store on eBay. Ricky Serbin, the owner, reported that his site had about 150,000 hits and some 4,000 visits a day. “These people do not need to be shopping on eBay,” Mr. Serbin said of his well-heeled customers. “They tell themselves, ‘I’m getting a $13,000 gown for $2,000 or $3,000,’ which is nothing to them.”

If a customer parts with $1,000 for a jeweled Lanvin necklace at the site, it’s a bargain compared with the original $8,000 tag. “They may see that as a tightening of the belt,” Mr. Serbin noted tartly.

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Certainly the rewards of buying and selling through resale shops can be more emotional than practical. As Judy Yun, a customer and consignor at Ina, acknowledged, there are no savings in getting back $350 for a Balenciaga bag that cost $1,600, then spending the money on a $400 pair of Manolo Blahnik sandals. She buys and consigns nonetheless because, she said: “I like seeing that little bit of extra cash. Actually, it’s not so little when you’re talking about a Balenciaga handbag.”

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Among the covetable pieces at Ina last week were a Prada pink mock-crocodile evening bag, which was selling for $825, compared with the original price of about $2,200; a D & G evening dress in bronze-colored lace for $475, $1,800 new; and a $325 pair of Louboutin pumps, originally $775.

At Act II, a designer resale store in Kansas City, Mo., pieces from St. John, Yves Saint Laurent, Prada and Dior are quick to vanish from the racks, said Gloria Everhart, the owner. Chanel bouclé tweeds and Hermès handbags can fetch prices in the thousands wherever they turn up.

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Other labels that once sizzled have lost their draw. “Escada has gone cold, and so has Armani,” said Barbara Nell, the owner of the Daisy Shop on Oak Street in Chicago.

But for the most part, clothes that have gathered dust in closets for months rarely molder on consignment racks. That is because high-end merchants turn their inventory frequently, buying pieces that are no more than a few seasons old and dropping prices every few weeks to ensure that the wares look fresh and will sell at a reasonable cost.

Both merchants and consumers say that purging the closet and buying castoffs can be cleansing for the soul. “The whole idea of recycling and going green motivates some of our customers,” said Ms. Fluhr of Michael’s. “People are aware that Jimmy Choos fill landfills, too.”

Ms. Yun said she has grown increasingly sensitive to environmental issues. “Selling to resale shops becomes a platform to recycle,” she said. “Besides, I tell myself, ‘It’s obscene to have so much.’ ”

Five years ago, Mrs. Baden, the lawyer, rarely gave much thought to paying full retail for an evening dress she was unlikely to wear again. But in the weeks approaching a recent gala, she bought a Chanel gown at Ricky’s on eBay for one third of its original $10,000 price. “I was going to wear it to just one function,” she recalled. “To spend that kind of money — I couldn’t justify it.”