Labels and tags that are given to people are not always a good thing. Labels and tags for clothing, however; can tell you a story. When shopping for vintage clothing, one of the first things I look for on a piece of clothing is the label. Clothing tags give you the typical information: manufacturer, size, material, etc. If a size and material label are not found; then sometimes I can find an RN number.RN stands for Registered Number. This means that the clothing manufacturer is registered with the US Federal Trade Commission. RN numbers are very helpful because it will link the piece of clothing to a designer or clothing line. From there, you can search the manufacturer’s years of production. There are several links online including a very informative link on one of my favorite websites: Vintage Fashion Guild
http://www.vintagefashionguild.org/component/option,com_alphacontent/Itemid,100
Not all clothing has tags or RN numbers; this is largely due to the fact that a lot of clothing that was made prior to 1970 was handmade. Handmade clothing is harder to date and identify but usually there are signs to help determine those characteristics. I was sewing on an old cast iron Singer before ever taking a home economics class. As a result, I think that I am more familiar with fabrics and textures than a lot of people nowadays. I am grateful for my interest in clothing at an age when you could choose from several textures and weights in fabric as opposed to the purely 100% cottons that you find at your local fabric stores today.
One thing I can almost always count on when dating fabric is that any heavy polyester or polyester knit fabric is ALWAYS geeky in appearance and ALWAYS 1970’s! But, “Hey”; I am almost always geeky in appearance so I don’t mind being labeled in that respect.
