Private Label: Neck Labels, Woven Labels, Hang Tags and Packaging

What private label means

Private label clothing is sold under your brand when another business made it. There are two routes. You can relabel blanks: buy finished garments from a mill (the blank sourcing guide covers where), remove the maker's branding and add your own labels. Or you can produce cut and sew styles that are yours from the pattern up and labeled with your brand from the start, as covered in blanks vs cut and sew.

Either way, the label is more than branding. Once a garment carries your name, you are the business identified to customers and regulators, and the label's required information becomes your responsibility.

Relabeling blanks

How easy relabeling is depends on how the blank's own label is attached.

• Tear-away labels. Many blank styles are sold with a tear-away label: a neck label on a material designed to be torn off close to the seam, leaving a small stub. Tear slowly toward the seam, not across it.
• Sewn-in labels. These have to be unpicked or cut out. Unpicking keeps the neck tape intact; cutting close leaves a stub that can scratch. Fine jersey can hole if stitches are pulled carelessly.
• Printed labels. Some blanks carry the maker's information printed inside the neck. It cannot be removed, so choose a different style if a clean neck matters.

The maker's care and content label in the side seam often stays, because it already carries the fiber and care information. Your new neck label then carries your brand, the size and the country of origin, which on a garment with a neck has to sit at the inside center of the neck. If the label you removed identified the maker, the new one also needs your company name or RN.

Under the FTC's textile rules, replacing a label is legal as long as the new label carries the name or RN of the business making the change, plus the required information that was on the original. A business that substitutes labels must keep records of the information on the removed label and the supplier it got the goods from, for three years. Printing or embroidering an imported blank in the US does not make it a US-made garment, so the country where the blank was made stays on the label. If you want to mention the work done in the US, it goes alongside the original origin, never in place of it.

What a US garment label must show

Fiber content

Use generic fiber names, such as cotton, polyester, rayon and spandex (elastane, its ISO name, is also accepted), listed in order of weight with percentages (the fabric guide explains the common blends). A single-fiber garment can say "100% cotton" or "All cotton". A fiber that makes up less than five percent of the weight is normally listed as "other fiber" rather than by name, unless it has a clear functional purpose at that amount; a little spandex added for stretch is the common case. Wool is always named with its percentage. Most trims, such as collars, cuffs, waistbands, binding and labels, are excluded from the fiber statement, and small amounts of ornamentation can be excluded with the words "exclusive of ornamentation". The FTC allows a small tolerance on stated percentages, but none when a label claims a single fiber.

Country of origin

An imported garment names the country where it was made. A garment can say "Made in USA" only if it was made in the US from materials made in the US. If it was sewn in the US from imported fabric, the label says so in one statement, for example "Made in USA of imported fabric". When manufacturing happened in two countries, both are named, as in the FTC's example "Made in Sri Lanka, finished in USA". For any garment with a neck, the origin goes on the front of a label at the inside center of the neck, either midway between the shoulder seams or next to another label there. Online and catalog listings must also say whether the product is made in the USA, imported, or both, which belongs in the fabric and fit details of your product pages.

Identity: company name or RN

The label must identify a responsible business: its name, or its Registered Identification Number (RN), written with the "RN" prefix before the digits. RNs are issued by the FTC at no charge, only to US businesses that manufacture, import, distribute or sell covered textile products, through an online application. They are optional, and a private label garment may carry the RN or name of the brand that buys and sells it rather than the factory's.

Care instructions

The FTC's Care Labeling Rule requires manufacturers and importers of textile apparel to attach care instructions that stay legible for the garment's useful life. The label must say whether to hand or machine wash, give a water temperature if regular hot washing would harm the garment, cover drying, bleaching and ironing where needed, and warn against procedures that would cause damage with words like "Do not", "No" or "Only". You need a reasonable basis for the instructions: experience may be enough, while a dye known to bleed calls for testing.

Care symbols from the ASTM D5489 system may be used instead of words. Care instructions can be printed directly on the garment or combined with the fiber content label, as long as they meet the permanence and legibility requirements. They must be easy to find at the point of sale; if packaging hides the label, the care information also goes on the package or a hang tag.

Exceptions worth knowing for merch

Headwear, including hats and caps, sits outside the Textile Act's labeling requirements, though wool hats are covered by the wool rules. The Care Labeling Rule exempts hats as well. Many cap makers label them anyway.

Neck labels: printed or woven

Printed labels can carry size, origin, identity, fiber and care information in one place, provided the print stays legible for the garment's life. The hood, sleeve and neck print guide covers inside-neck printing.

Woven label types, folds and edges

Woven labels come in a few weaves:

• Damask. Fine, tightly woven threads that hold small text and detail with a smooth hand. The usual choice for brand labels.
• Taffeta. Coarser threads, less detail, stiffer and simpler.
• Satin. A glossy, soft surface that holds less fine detail than damask.
• Printed satin or cotton tape. Printed rather than woven, often used for care and content labels.

Folds decide how a label is sewn on. Straight cut labels lie flat and are stitched on all sides or at the ends. End fold labels have both ends tucked under and are stitched across them, the standard center-back-neck label. Center fold (loop) labels are folded in half and caught in a seam, which is how hem and side-seam flag labels are made. Miter fold labels are folded at an angle into a hanging loop, and booklet fold labels give extra panels for care text in several languages.

Edges matter for comfort. Heat-cut or ultrasonically cut edges can be hard if the finish is rough; woven (selvedge) edges are softer. Keep text large and strokes thick enough for the weave, because fine serifs and hairlines fill in.

Hang tags

A hang tag carries what does not belong on a permanent label: the brand story, the price, the size, a barcode, and care information when packaging hides the sewn label. Custom hang tags are printed on heavy card, recycled board, kraft or cotton paper, and can be die cut, foiled, embossed or letterpressed.

Attach them consistently. A plastic fastener shot through with a tagging gun is fastest; put it through the main label or a seam allowance, never through the body fabric, where it leaves a hole in fine jersey. String with a seal or a safety pin suits premium pieces. Pick one position for the whole line, such as through the neck label or under the left sleeve, so staff and customers always find it.

If a hang tag highlights one fiber, such as organic cotton, without giving the full fiber content, the FTC expects it to say so, for example "See label for the product's full fiber content". Retailers that scan stock will specify the barcode type they need and where it goes.

Polybags, stickers and retail-ready packing

• Folding. Fold every unit the same way to the same folded size, usually around a folding board, with the print or label facing where the tech pack says.
• Polybags. Self-seal polybags keep units clean in storage and transit. Some jurisdictions require a suffocation warning on bags above a set size, so check the rules for where you sell. The packaging guide covers bags, mailers and unboxing.
• Size stickers. A size sticker on the bag, and a SKU or barcode label if your warehouse or retailer needs one.
• Direct-to-customer extras. Tissue wrap, sticker seals, inserts and branded boxes.
• Wholesale cartons. Packed by style, color and size or in agreed assortments, with carton labels showing purchase order, style, color, size breakdown, quantity and carton number. Large retailers publish routing guides and vendor manuals and can charge back for mistakes, so read them before packing. The fulfillment options guide compares who can do this packing for you.

Ordering labels and trims

Woven labels, hang tags and printed polybags each have their own minimums, proofs and production time, separate from the garment. Order them while fit is still being finalized, so the pre-production sample can carry final labels. Approve physical samples, not just digital proofs, because weave texture and color shift on the real thing. Order spares to cover relabeling losses and reorders.

Private label checklist

1. Choose relabeling or cut and sew, and confirm the blank's label type if relabeling.
2. Decide what goes on each label: brand, size, fiber content, origin, identity, care.
3. Get an RN or decide to use the company name.
4. Confirm the country of origin wording with the maker of the garment.
5. Write care instructions you can support, in words or ASTM symbols.
6. Choose printed or woven neck labels, weave, fold and edge.
7. Design and proof hang tags; decide attachment and position.
8. Specify fold, folded size, polybag, warning and stickers.
9. Get retailer routing guides before packing wholesale orders.
10. Keep records of removed labels and suppliers if you relabel.

Put the finished label and packing decisions on the labels page of your tech pack so every run is finished the same way, whoever does the packing.

Useful for: clothing brands, bands, creators, companies.