Hi! I got this sweater from a goodwill the other day. Seems a pretty timeless cut I was assuming 90s when I first saw it but the tag looks vintage and said it was made in Korea! However, there’s an in-seam tag that seems brand spanking new. Has anyone come across this contradiction before? My RN is 42000 which didnt result in anything on an RN database search. Did companies keep printing that things were made in “Korea” past the 70s/80s? It’s just a normal mock neck sweater made from acrylic and feels like chenille.
I am pretty sure the brand was a large chain store brand, low cost. And yes, this would not be vintage yet.
We had this whole thread about US care labels which a past member had been collecting information about - basically, from 1997 onwards, care labels with symbols became mandatory in the US, as of 1993 the first symbols were introduced and it could be both text and symbols, before that, it was just text. I just remembered that we had that... so at least this sweater is pre-1997. South Korea became big for producing goods from the 70s onwards I think, and roughly post-2000, things moved to cheaper places like China, Bangladesh and all that. I'd guess somewhere in the 90s for this sweater. I had one made of that same type of velvety yarn, but in bright orange. Somewhere early to mid-90s I think. It may be that there was a short-lived trend for these. That was a moment there when I was getting into buying trendy things...
Thank you! I was confused between the contrast of Made in Korea as opposed to South Korea but such a contemporary looking tag… thank you for the information about the tag symbols! That’s really useful information for dating clothing.
Barbie dolls and accessories were produced in Korea too for a while - 70s/80s I think. They're all marked just "Made in Korea". I have one vintage dress from the 60s or 70s that was actually made in North Korea - says "Made in DPRK", which I found in a vintage shop in Finland and which probably had made it's way west via Russia... "Made in Korea" definitely means South Korea - North Korea was already hiding behind the iron curtain then. Both countries and their economies were basically destroyed in the Korean War. For a while, North Korea fared better, but it was a communist regime, so no producing commercial goods for the West. I think I read somewhere that up until a point in the 70s, the north had a higher BIP than the south, and then South Korea ascended (and at that point it was as much a dictorship as the north, it has to be said - it was just not a communist state, and they became a democracy only in the 80s...) and became a manufacturing powerhouse - and then came technology, for which it is known nowadays.
Interesting history. But, I tend to disagree on the date of this one. I know the brand name and it was later than 1990s. Possibly early 2000. It looks like one of those chenille sweaters that were popular for awhile. Older tags still used?
Ack, chenille was the word I was looking for ! Of course I don't know the brand... on the other hand, we have the label regulation change. Not sure how much longer they would have gotten away with not changing the labels though.
I have been looking into this for awhile now. I don’t think the use is mandatory but rather it allowed the use of symbols initially along with text and ultimately in lieu of text. In other words, when the The Care Labeling Rule was first promulgated in 1971, it required care instructions in text. Subsequently, the rule was revised to say “any appropriate symbols may be used on care labels or care instructions, in addition to the required appropriate terms”. Finally in 1997, they allowed the use of symbols only adopting the exemption to do so.
Thank you for the information Victoria. I knew the sweater was much later, along with the brand. A good discussion
Interesting - thanks for finding that, Victoria! So the information we had in that old thread wasn't correct.
