Bernard Rudofsky (of Architecture without Architects) organized a 1944 MoMA show called "Are Clothes Modern?"
https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3159
catalog published in 1947
https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_3159_300063439.pdf
Rudofsky: "Period and folk dress have been interminably ransacked for ornamental detail. But their ingenuity and wisdom have yet to be understood."