Three trims, three jobs. A hang tag is removable marketing — brand, price, size, a barcode. A woven label is sewn in permanently and carries the brand. A care label is the legal one: fibre content, care symbols, origin.
They are usually ordered together and usually specified badly, because the details that matter — denier on a woven label, fold type on a care label, string type on a tag — are not on most buyers' checklists. This guide covers what each one is for, how the materials behave after ten washes, and what has to be printed on a care label to clear customs and retail audits.
Three trims, three jobs
A hang tag is attached to the garment in a way that lets the customer remove it. It is the only one of the three designed to be thrown away, which is why it carries price, barcode and size — the things a shop needs and a wearer does not. It is also the cheapest place to put a seasonal story, a fabric explanation or a QR code.
A woven label is sewn into the garment and stays there for its life. Its job is identity: brand name, size, sometimes origin. Because it is woven rather than printed, the lettering does not fade or crack with washing, which is why premium brands use it even when a printed label would be cheaper.
A care label is the compliance item. Fibre composition, care symbols, country of origin and any warnings. In most markets it must be permanently attached and must survive the recommended wash. Getting this wrong is not a branding problem, it is a customs and retail-audit problem — a shipment can be held for a missing fibre percentage.
| Hang tag | Woven label | Care label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Material | 250–400 gsm art paper, ivory board, kraft, black card | Damask, satin or taffeta weave | Satin ribbon, nylon taffeta, cotton tape, coated polyester |
| Size range | 30×50 to 90×150 mm, any die-cut shape | 20–60 mm wide, up to 100 mm for main labels | 15–40 mm wide, up to 3 panels |
| Colours | Offset CMYK + Pantone, up to 8 | Up to 8 per label, metallic thread available | 1–4 spot colours, one or both sides |
| MOQ | 1,000 pcs · 500 per artwork version when mixed | 1,000 pcs per design and colourway | 1,000 pcs · 500 per content version when mixed |
| Sampling | Mockup 24 h · physical 3–5 days | Woven sample 5–7 days | Printed sample 5–7 days |
| Lead time | 10–15 days | 12–20 days | 12–20 days |
Hang tags: paper, hardware and what buyers forget
Stock choice is the first decision, and it is mostly about how the tag has to feel in the hand. Art paper at 300–350 gsm takes colour best and is the default for fashion retail. Ivory board is brighter and stiffer, good for a crisp white brand look. Kraft signals unbleached and natural, and prints slightly muted — fine for a sustainable line, disappointing if you expect vivid CMYK. Black card needs either white ink or foil, because standard process inks disappear into it; budget for the extra pass.
Then hardware, which is where quotes quietly diverge. The options are a Euro slot punched at the top, a drilled hole, or no hole at all with an adhesive backing. Attachment runs from cotton string and waxed cord to elastic, safety pins and plastic fasteners. A Euro slot with a standard string is the cheapest combination; a drilled hole with a waxed cord and a hand-tied knot costs more because of the labour, and a barbed plastic fastener costs least of all but feels disposable.
The thing buyers forget is edge painting. On a dark tag with a light core, an unpainted edge shows a white line all the way round — visible the moment the tag is held at an angle. Edge painting is a small per-unit cost and almost always worth it above 1,000 pieces.
Practical tip: if the tag carries a barcode, keep the barcode clear of the string hole and at least 3 mm from any fold or edge. Retail scanners fail on a barcode that bends around a die-cut shape.
Woven labels: what the D number tells you
Woven labels are made on needle looms, where the artwork is translated into a weave grid rather than printed. That is why fine text holds up so well and why gradients do not work at all — a woven label is essentially a very low-resolution image with a limited palette.
The number in front of the D is denier, the thickness of the yarn. 50D is a fine thread: soft against the skin, good for babywear and delicate fabrics, but it cannot hold very small lettering. 75D is the workhorse for main neck labels — sharp enough for a logo with a tagline. 100D is a thicker yarn that gives the densest weave and the crispest small type, at the cost of a stiffer feel. If a customer has ever complained that a neck label scratches, the answer is usually to drop from 100D to 75D or 50D and accept slightly softer edges.
Satin and taffeta behave differently from damask. Damask is the traditional jacquard weave: the design is woven in, both sides readable (one reversed), and it is the most durable. Satin is smoother and glossier but thinner, so it is usually chosen for care labels and small side labels rather than a main brand label. Taffeta sits between the two.
Backing matters as much as the front. A soft woven back is for garments worn against the skin. A heat-seal coating lets the label be ironed on instead of sewn, which saves sewing time but can lift after repeated washing if the temperature was wrong. Self-adhesive is for temporary or non-garment use. Plain is for sewing, which remains the most reliable.
Care labels: the legal content
Care labelling is regulated, and the rules are not harmonised across markets. The safe approach is to treat it as a compliance task, not a design task: your compliance team supplies the exact wording and symbol set, and the factory reproduces it precisely.
What normally has to appear:
- Fibre composition — each fibre named and given as a percentage, in descending order by weight
- Care symbols — wash, bleach, tumble dry, iron, professional care, following the ISO 3758 symbol set
- Country of origin — "Made in China" or the applicable wording for the destination market
- Warnings — where relevant, for example "do not iron print" or flammability warnings on children's sleepwear
- Identity — the manufacturer, importer or marketer responsible for the product, as required by the destination market
Two practical points. First, the label has to survive its own instructions: a "wash at 40°C" label printed on a substrate that bleeds at 40°C is a compliance failure that only shows up after the first wash. Coated polyester is chosen for dark garments because it does not show through; satin ribbon is softer but can fray if the cut is not heat-sealed. Second, multi-panel bookfold labels let you put three or four languages plus symbols on one label, which is how most European brands handle the language requirement without sewing in three separate labels.
Folds and finishes, in plain terms
The fold is how the label attaches and whether it can be read from both sides. It is specified in one word, and getting it wrong means the label cannot be sewn where you planned.
Straight cut — a flat piece, sewn on two edges, usually into a seam. The simplest and cheapest. Centre fold — folded in half with the fold at the top, so the label stands up above the seam and is readable from one side. The default for neck labels. End fold — both short ends folded under, so the label lies flat and is sewn on the two folded ends; used inside waistbands and side seams. Mitre fold — corners folded diagonally, giving a neat finish on a flat label. Loop fold — a continuous loop, common on care labels attached at a side seam. Bookfold — two or more panels folded like a book, used when the care content will not fit on one face.
Ask for the fold in writing, and ask for a photo of the sample folded, not just flat. A folded sample answers questions a flat one cannot.
Three mistakes that cost a reorder
Specifying the label before the seam. A centre-fold label needs a seam allowance deep enough for the fold to sit above the stitching. If the garment's seam allowance changes after the sample stage, the label may end up buried. Confirm the seam position with the garment factory before the label run, not after.
Approving artwork on screen. Woven labels cannot reproduce thin lines, small gradients or fine serif hairlines, and a 0.2 mm line in Illustrator may vanish entirely at 50D. Always approve a physical woven sample. The same applies to care labels: check that the smallest symbol is still legible after printing on satin.
Assuming one version covers all colourways. MOQ is per design and per colourway on woven labels. A black label and a white label for the same logo are two runs, not one. If you are launching five colours, either accept one label colour that works on all of them, or budget for five minimums — this is the single most common surprise on a first trims order.
What to send with an inquiry
One page is enough. Include:
- Artwork — vector file, with fonts outlined and Pantone references named
- Dimensions in millimetres, and the fold type by name
- Material preference, or the garment it will sit against so we can recommend one
- Attachment — sewn, heat-seal or adhesive; string type if it is a hang tag
- Quantity per design and per colourway, and whether a reorder is expected
- Destination market, so care-label content can be checked against the right rules
With those six, a trims quotation is usually same-day, and the sample is in your hands within a week. Without them, the first two rounds are spent establishing what is being made — which is where most of the lost time in a trims order actually goes.
Ordering tags and labels with your bags
Most of our customers buy paper bags, tags and labels on one purchase order, which means one set of shipping documents, one container slot and one arrival date. The trims run on separate equipment from the bags, so the lead times differ — but they can be consolidated before loading.
Send the artwork and the garment spec, and we will come back with what each trim costs at your quantity, which fold we would recommend for your seam, and what the care label needs to say for the market you are selling into.
Common questions
Do I need woven labels and care labels, or can one label do both?
They do different jobs and usually live in different places. A woven label carries your brand and is normally placed at the centre-back neck or inside the side seam; it is a marketing item. A care label carries fibre content, care symbols, country of origin and warnings; it is a legal item, and in the EU and the US the required information has to be permanently attached to the garment. Many brands use one woven label at the neck and a separate printed care label lower down, or a multi-panel bookfold label that shows the brand on the outside and the care content inside.
What does 50D, 75D or 100D mean on a woven label?
D is denier, the thickness of the yarn used to weave the label. A higher number means a thicker thread: 50D gives a fine, soft label that suits small type and delicate garments, 75D is the common middle ground for main neck labels, and 100D gives a denser, more rigid label with the sharpest small lettering but a stiffer hand feel. If your artwork has very small text or a fine logo line, the weave density and the denier matter more than the label width.
What has to appear on a care label by law?
In the European Union, Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 requires the fibre composition in descending order and, when a product contains non-textile parts of animal origin, that this is stated. Care symbols follow ISO 3758, and the country of origin is required in most markets including the US, where the FTC Textile Fiber Products Identification Act also requires fibre content, country of origin and the manufacturer or marketer identity. Rules differ by market, so the practical approach is to give your supplier the exact wording and symbol set your compliance team has approved rather than letting them choose.
