Lizzie, Joan got a definitive date of 1974 for the inception of the red, white, and blue ILGWU tag. The discussion is over on the VCA. We don't have an example of the red, white, and blue label for hte resource. Does someone have an image that could be added?
Wow, I thought it was much much later than that, like late 80s. I'm sure a lot of manufacturers kept using the all blue until their supply ran out, but who has a decade's worth of tags on hand!?
To inform you of the post I put on the other list. The ILGWU tags, the numbers on the tag state the date. The first two numbers tell you the year. I couldnt remember if it was the first two or last two but since you said it is 74, then it is the first two numbers. I learned this on a forensics website. Someone had been murdered and they didnt find the body til several years later. The clothes the person had on had an ILGWU tag in it. They were trying to place when the clothes were from and someone told them about the numbers, so they knew the person had been killed after a certain year. Pretty cool... Hope this helps =) Billie jo
This is helpful: http://reviews.ebay.com/Clothing-Labels-Union-Labels-ILGWU-Labels_W0QQugidZ10000000003230636 Hollis
It would appear, according to Elaines review posted above, that the date thing with the red white and blue label only went on for a while, as the one she shows for the 80's dress has "26" as the first two numbers. Still - I think that's really neat and it's something I actually might be able to remember!
If the numbers no ILGWU '74-85 tags (the red/white/blue) have meaning, it does not apply to any of the other era ILGWU labels. I have a '63-74 label here, an a poly knit shift, and the number at top is 374491. It's some sort of code, of course, but does not correspond to an RN number and certainly isn't from either 1937 OR 1991. It's from somewhere between July 1963 and (I believe Jan.) 1974. I'd say late- 60s. This thread is very old. I'm wondering if there's new info available?
OK this is old, but this got me searching about dating union labels. I did find this that I found quite interesting! located on ebay thread http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=510216875&rw=true&anticache=1318329883126 I hope that if there is any truth to this that we can figure it out.
