The other day I saw a young, well dressed woman wearing an expensive looking coat that still had the “100% Cashmere” label on the sleeve. The kind that is woven into a ribbon-like material and tacked down on the four corners. I was a bit embarrassed for her so I didn’t mention anything. Then a few days later I saw the same thing on another woman’s coat, and a few days after that, yet another.
Is this a “thing”? It seems very tacky. This was in a hip area of young professionals, not a mall full of people strutting purses with prominent designers’ names on them.
I used to work at a store that left labels like “Made in Italy,” on the coat sleeves. It’s probably just a status symbol, to let people know you can afford expensive fabrics or European garments. I find it tacky as well.
The thing is, one needs a thread cutter or very small pointy scissors to snip the threads without cutting a hole in the fabric, Why the 'ell do they sew those labels in place. My sweaters (bought two, in different colors) have the makers label sewn on the outside lower right hip area. It’s tacked in there pretty tight, and I would hate to rip a hole in it.
I would definitely snip off a content label if its stuck on the sleeve -
Why do clothes manufacturers do those weird annoying little things, like package a oxford shirt with 19 pins, 7 cardboard inserts, 11 stickers, tucked in a fabric ribbon and heatsealed in plastic?
I had such a label on the last coat I bought, and it was sewed so tightly it was a bitch to remove. When I realized how difficult it was going to be, I did wonder if I was supposed to just leave it there, but I eventually got it.
I’ve seen that on young men wearing what appears to be their very first suit. The impression was they didn’t realize it was supposed to be removed. It’d be tacky if they knew better, which I suspect they didn’t.
I bought a pea coat from Burlington Coat Factory that had such a label on the sleeve (it was the designer’s name, Tommy Hilfiger or something) and I was honestly ignorant of the “fact” that you’re supposed to take it off. I live in the Midwest and I bought the coat at Burlington!
But, it just looked plain weird - a white label on a navy blue coat - so I set to taking it off myself. Except I only got as far as taking the label off and not digging the threads out.
So now I have a nice navy coat with two little white thread knots sticking out of the sleeve. I don’t wear the coat that much (it’s a dog hair magnet!) but every time I do I’m all “Goddamn these little white knots! I need to take them out!” but I never get the chance.
I’ve bought many suits in my life and no retailer has ever removed the tag. Sometimes I remove them myself when I get home, and sometimes I let the tailor remove them.
On the pockets-sewn-shut thing, I always thought it was to prevent the five finger discount.
I was thinking about starting a thread on this very topic the other day! Sleeve tags, pockets still sewn shut, and my personal favorite…the vent on the back of a coat still tacked shut with a big X of thread. I have seen kick pleats on the back of straight skirts still tacked shut, and even the bottoms of the pleats on a fully pleated skirt tacked down (with loose threads everywhere).
