There are lots of things that we purchase that come with instruction booklets.
Maybe you’ve recently purchased a new television, toaster or microwave, and when you’ve unpacked it, you’ll find the usual user manual wrapped up nicely inside a cellophane folder.
The thing with instruction booklets is that most of the time they are never used.
We all know how things basically work, and with most things, you simply plug them in and they work.
However, a lot of the time, the information that they contain is actually very useful.
Not all products from various brands and models work the same.
Sometimes they have different settings which you will only know about from reading through the instructions.
Clothing tags
Clothing is one type of consumable, along with things such as food or drink, that doesn’t come with an instruction booklet.
After all, everyone knows how to put on a t-shirt or a pair of jeans.
Why would you need instructions for that?
Well when it comes to clothing, the instructions are more to do with the care of the product, rather than how to actually use the item in question.
Clothing labels actually contain a great deal of important information.
Care Labels
If you look closely inside a piece of clothing that you regularly wear, you’ll usually notice that there are two tags inside.
On a t-shirt for example, one tag will usually be a sew in label at the back in the neck area, which will be the branding of the item, with the company logo and name, as well as the size of the garment.
But inside, usually on one side around the rib area, you’ll often find a much longer label.
This is the care label, which basically gives you instructions about how to care for the garment.
Sometimes these labels are quite long, and some people find them very irritating when wearing the piece of clothing, so they will usually cut them out.
Before discarding the label, it’s a good idea to actually have a quick look at the information on it.
What information do you find on care labels?
The main use of the care label is to provide easy to follow and understand instructions about how best to keep the garment in good shape and condition.
Other times you’ll find information about the best way to wash an item, whether it be best being washed by hand, or if you can pop it into the washing machine along with all of your other laundry.
Some clothing such as winter jackets or suits will tell you that the item is best cared for by dry cleaning, or whether it needs to be washed at a certain temperature to avoid shrinking.
Sometimes you will find information about how the garment was made and which materials were used.
For example, there are some items that are a mix of different fabrics, and the care label is the perfect way to explain exactly what has gone into making this specific piece of clothing, rather than simply having a generic label stating something such as Made in India.
Having this kind of information on the care label is also very helpful for shoppers.
Maybe someone has an allergy to a specific fabric or material.
If the label clearly states what the garment is made from, it can help shoppers from purchasing items that they would then need to return.
Labels for branding
When it comes to any type of business, branding is a very important element.
Being recognized by your brand is a great way of increasing awareness, even without the need for expensive advertising campaigns and other forms of promotion.
People who are carrying your supermarket bag with your logo on, or that new sports top with the famous swoosh logo are doing the advertising or you.
The labels that you find in clothing are very important for the manufacturer when it comes to branding.
They are another way to feature their logo onto the piece of clothing, especially if it’s something such as a dress or shirt where they wouldn’t really be able to have their logo splashed all across it, as they could do with a training top.
Branding is very important when it comes to customer loyalty and can play a huge role in whether or not a line of clothing or even the business itself is a success.
Types of labels
There are many different types of labels that you will find on clothing.
The type used will almost always be related to the type of garment they are on.
Woven labels are a type that are permanently fixed to the garment.
The will usually be on the inner neck area at the back of the items, so can also be attached to the side.
Non-woven labels are those that are becoming increasingly popular with new fashion designers, who want to use something a little more edgy and different to what is generally used in the market.
Another popular type of label that you’ll often find on jeans for example, are swing tags.
These can be made out of a wide range of different materials including things such as metal, wood or plastic.
They can come in a range of sizes and shapes, but in general are roughly the size of a credit card or thereabouts.
One final label worth mentioning, just because of its uniqueness, are what are known as plantable seed labels, which are actually made from eco-paper that is biodegradable and which have been embedded with flower seeds.
It’s certainly a different way to help with the disposal of labels, but we will have to wait and see if it’s something that catches on with all manufacturers.
Some final words
Labels are important parts of our clothing.
Whether or not we actually pay attention to them is something else, but they do have a lot of practical uses, and the information they provide is important when it comes to caring for the garments.