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Guide 02 · Identification

What a Label Can Tell You

Labels, closures and seams are the paperwork of a garment. Some point to documented dates; others only to tendencies. Here is how to tell the two apart and combine them.

Evidence works in layers

No single detail dates a garment. A curator looks for several independent clues and asks where their date ranges overlap. If a dress has a silhouette from the late 1940s to the 1950s, a metal zipper and no fiber-content label, the overlap is narrower than any one clue alone. If it also carries a printed care label with washing symbols, the estimate changes completely, because that label points to a much later period or a reproduction.

The most useful clues set a "not before" boundary. A law that came into force in a known year cannot appear on a garment made earlier, unless the label was added later, which does happen. Absence of a clue is weaker evidence: a garment without a fiber label may be older, or it may have been home-sewn, made outside the United States, or had its label cut out.

Label-detail annotation

A label, point by point

Photograph of a magnifying glass held over a woven neck label and a printed care tag on an older garment 12345

Numbered markers correspond to the list alongside. Placement is illustrative.

  1. Brand or store name. Typeface, spelling and address changes can be matched against the Vintage Fashion Guild Label Resource. Department-store labels often list a city.
  2. RN number. Issued by the US Federal Trade Commission from around 1959. Its presence suggests a US-market garment from that point on.
  3. Fiber content. Required in the US by the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act, effective March 1960. Fiber names matter too: "spandex" or "Lycra" cannot predate DuPont's late-1950s introduction.
  4. Care instructions. Permanent care labels became mandatory in the US under the FTC Care Labeling Rule, in force from 1972. Washing symbols in the ISO 3758 style point later still, especially on US-made goods.
  5. Size and union mark. Numerical sizes have shifted repeatedly, so measure instead. ILGWU union labels changed design over the decades; compare yours with a documented sequence rather than guessing.
Flag the uncertaintyLabels can be moved, replaced or copied. Reproduction makers sometimes use deliberately old-fashioned woven labels. A label supports an estimate; it does not prove one.

Clues beyond the label

Documented dates are marked; other ranges are approximate tendencies.
ClueWhat it suggestsCaution
CC41 markBritish Utility scheme garment, 1941–1952 (documented)Collectors prize these, so check for later imitation marks.
Nylon fiberMade after DuPont's 1939–1940 introduction (documented)Wartime shortages limited civilian nylon until the late 1940s.
Metal side zipper in a dressCommon from the 1930s into the 1950s (approximate)Metal zippers continued in use for decades and in reproductions.
Nylon coil zipperSpread widely through the 1960s and 1970s (approximate)Zippers are often replaced during repairs.
Pinked or hand-finished seamsFrequent before overlocking dominated ready-to-wear (approximate)Home sewers pinked seams long after industry moved on.
Overlocked (serged) seamsCommon in later mass production (approximate)Overlock machines existed early in the century; this is a tendency.
Polyester double knitPopular in the late 1960s and 1970s (approximate)Revived in later retro-inspired lines.

Fabric and fiber

Fiber is evidence when it rules something out. Nylon stockings went on general sale in the United States in 1940, so a nylon lining cannot predate that. Rayon appears much earlier and was widely used through the 1930s and 1940s. Polyester and acrylic become everyday materials in the 1960s and 1970s. A burn test can identify fibers, but it damages the garment and should only be done on a loose thread from a hidden seam allowance, if at all.

Construction and wear

Look at how the garment was finished. Hand-stitched hems, snaps and hooks-and-eyes at the side placket, and generous seam allowances that allowed later alteration are common on mid-century pieces. Wear is evidence too: fading along fold lines, perspiration staining at the underarms, and repairs in older thread colours suggest a long life. Uniform, flat-looking distressing more often points to a newer piece made to look old.

Reproductions and later labels

Reproduction brands openly make era-style clothing, and that is honest work when it is sold as such. Problems begin when listings remove modern care tags and describe the piece as original. Check the inside: modern sizing systems, washing symbols, and fiber blends such as polyester-elastane in a "1940s" dress are strong signs of recent manufacture.

Write it down

Record each clue, its date range and whether that range is documented or approximate. Then note the overlap. A good working note reads: "Not before 1960 (fiber label), probably before 1972 (no care label, US brand); silhouette consistent with the mid-1960s." If you get stuck, send us an object question with photographs described in words.

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