Date it by the label
One lane for each clue on a garment. Find what you are holding, read across, and the years line up. Every date is a rough guess, so use two or three clues together.
- Common in these years
- A good clue for dating
- There in every decade
- Nothing sewn in
Labels and makers' tags
$9Buy
- Woven name labelabout 1920 to 1960
- Printed on the neck, no tagabout 1985 to 2005
- Satin and printed tagsabout 1950 to 1985
Zips
$9Buy
Care labels
- No care labelbefore about 1970
- Care label in wordsabout 1970 to 1990
- Care label in symbolsabout 1980 to 2005
Fibres
$5Buy
- Wool, cotton, linen, silkin every decade
- Rayonabout 1925 to 1960
- Polyesterabout 1960 to 2005
- Nylonabout 1945 to 2005
Sizing
$4Buy
- Numbered sizes, cut smallabout 1920 to 1965
- Sizes drift largerabout 1985 to 2005
- Letter sizes: S, M, Labout 1955 to 2005
Shop
Downloads arrive by email as soon as you pay.
Shop
Downloads arrive by email as soon as you pay.
Printed to order
Merch
My designs, printed to order and shipped by Printful.
Hello, I’m Halina
I'm Halina. I live in Lodz and I haven't bought a new coat in nine years. I find clothes at charity shops, in flea markets and on friends' rails, and I wear them until they need mending.
I started turning collars over to read the labels because I wanted to know how old a jacket was. That turned into a chart of labels, zips, care tags, fibres and sizes, and then into a letter every Tuesday.
I sell the label chart as a guide, a mending guide, a shop checklist and two short video courses. Everything is written for ordinary people with a small budget and a sewing box.
The Label Letter
A letter every Tuesday about buying secondhand, reading labels and mending what I own.