Identifying Vintage: Tags, Part 2

Now that we've covered the basics of the design on the tag in determining its vintage authenticity, let's dive in a little deeper to look at the other tag components generally attached to a garment such as a union tag, the style/lot number tag, and clothing care tag.

Clothing unions were very prevelant in the United States from the early 1900s up until the 1980s when massproduction of clothing sent a lot of jobs oversees to be produced for less.  Not saying that this exportation of jobs wasn't done before the 80s, but this was one of the largest shifts in production to happen up until that time.  Before this, however the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union or ILGWU was one of the most powerful and prevelant unions in the country, and you can see many of their tags on your vintage garments in the form of a white, square tag with a circle design, generally in a shade of blue with red.  If you find this tag on your garment, you can use this guide or this guide to help determine the garment's age.

Some things to note about union tags:  the ILGWU joined the CIO in 1937, the AFL in 1940, and the CIO and AFL merged in the mid-50s forming the AFL-CIO.  Today, the ILGWU is known as UNITE, which formed in 1995.  Tags will reflect these changes.

Once again in our modern world, computers and technology make keeping track of things very easy.  In our vintage world, this wasn't so much the case, so manufacturers had to come up with an easy and efficient way to keep track of which style of what garments were going where.  Enter the Lot and Style number and tag to a piece of clothing.  The lot number is the number attached to a group going to a store, generally done by the size.  The style number is the number for the piece's design.
For example, let's say a production of blue, bellbottom jeans were going to be sent to Macy's, Sears Roebuck & Co, and Montgomery Wards.  They all want size 10 of the jeans.  The style number for the jeans is #708015.  So, they would get articles that read, "Lot Size 10 / Style: 708015," which would be put into their inventory and the manufacturers.  Basically, the number just helped with the assembly line production and distribution of the garment.

Today, style numbers are still on most tags, especially higher-end brands.  This is helped with the return process, as most style numbers are checked against the tags to make sure the correct garment is being returned.

Sometimes, it's what's missing that helps identify if a garment is vintage.  Before the 1960s and the pass of the Textile Production Identification Act, which mandates that, mainly for customs duties, a garment must be labeled with its fabric content in percentages, clothing wasn't required to have a tag in it that said what it was made of.  The same goes for before the Federal Trade Commission passed the Care Labeling Rule  in 1971 which states that all clothing tags must have at least one safe way to clean the garment listed.  This was also when clothing care icons were introduced.  If you see a care or content label or both on your garment, chances are it was created sometime after the 1960s.

However, one must remember, that some companies, especially those that used finer fabrics such as silk and wool, generally advertised the use of these products in their garments, so don't completely rule out an earlier era just because it has a content label, and, generally, this label would be a nicely designed label sewed into the lining of a jacket and not a printed and stitched in label like those we see today.

One last way that the tag can hold the key to vintage authenticity is by looking at where it was made.  If it was made in countries such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia, it's pretty safe to say that it's vintage, as these countries were disbanded in 1992.

Obviously, as with anything, these are just guidelines in determining your clothings originations.  Many other factors are involved in truly getting a proper reading and feel for a garment's age, but looking at the tags can provide a quick way to glance at a garment in a pile and see if it's worthy of adding to your vintage collection.  So have fun finding them!

Identifying Vintage: Tags, Part 1

Looking at the clothing label or tag of a garment is a very easy way to determine if the article is vintage or not.  Not only do tags provide the brand, manufacturer, and size of the garment, they also give clues as to the garment's age based on the tag's designer, its designer, and its city of origin.

First, we'll start with the brand on the tag.  Many brands and stores we know and love today have gone through slight changes in their names as the decades have gone on.  As we condense more things in our lives into abbreviations and shorthand, many companies have, as well.  Kind of like how Kentucky Fried Chicken is now officially just KFC, many stores have taken the quick approach to their names.  For example, if you see a tag that says "Sears, Roebuck & Co." it's safe to assume the article is vintage, as the company officially changed to simply "Sears" in the mid 80s (though "Sears" will appear on late 70s garments, as well).

Also, look for now-defunct companies.  With the economy as it is today, many major corporations have had to consice or call bankruptcy, and the same can be said for years previous.  As smaller companies folded, larger companies bought them out.  Montgomery Wards collapsed.  Marshall Fields was bought by Macy's.  If you see tags with companies that no longer exist or that exist in a different form, depending on when they were bought out, it's safe to say the item is vintage.

Furthermore, many companies that have stood the test of time have gone through changes in their labels to keep up with modern designs.  Betsy Johnson, Lilly Pulitzer, Pendleton, and various others have redesigned their labels as their lines have progressed.  Look at the progression of the Koret of California tags (50s and 70s respectively)

Looking at the tag's design is also a great tip-off.  Most tags today are streamlined, meant to look sophistcated and to blend into the clothing.  The same cannot be said for tags in many vintage clothing.  Decorative labels with fancy font or borders were more common as the clothing wasn't as massed produced as it is today.  Companies could afford to put pretty labels printed in various colors in clothing as it was all part of the production value and they weren't making as many.  Nowadays, regardless of the price of the clothing, labels are almost non-existant in a tag form because it cuts down on costs and most people find tags annoying in a garment, so they are made virtually invisible or printed on.

Another key when looking at a garment's tag is a simple subline that reads, "by (insert designer name)."  Nowadays, you would never see a label that read "Heritage 1969 by Gap," even though Heritage 1969 is their brand.  You'd just walk into Gap, pick out a pair of Heritage 1969 jeans and walk out.  Easy as that.  But, when companies wanted to introduce a new division of their brand to people or a smaller design company was making a division of a brand for a store before the electronic age, it was a little more difficult to drum up that attention.  Why?  Simple: advertising.  The Internet.  Twitter.  Facebook.  TV commercials. It's so much easier now for a designer to advertise their new line for a company due to technology.  Prior to the World Wide Web, word of mouth was the way advertising, and a designer relied on people seeing that byline in department stores or in a magazine to get more business for their own private designs and stores.  Nowadays, sub-brands are an entity on their own, wheras before, they relied greatly on their motherbrand.

Much like the "by" subline, the city of origin where the design was made is a great tip for vintage seekers.  With most clothing now mass-marketed and produced overseas, seeing a designer's name with "China" writted underneath it is not as appealing as seeing "Kate Spade New York," per say.  However, before the the boom of clothing jobs sent overseas happened (basically, before the early 1980s), the city name represented the urban style a lot of people craved.  If one lived in LA, they may crave the designs of New York designers because it was just a different look and showed a level of sophistication and exotic when one said, "I bought this during my recent trip to New York."  European and international cities brought even more to that level, as clothing at that time was mainly kept to the area it was made.  So, saying one had a jacket from a Paris or London designer would definitely bring a certain level of class to the wearer.

Clothing tags are from

1   |   2   |   3   |   4   |   5

6   |   7   |   8   |   9