Category Archives: Uncategorized

United Garment Workers of America union tags

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Union tags can be helpful in dating vintage clothes. The United Garment Workers of America tag, however, remained virtually unchanged from its first usage in 1891 until its last in 1994. The most notable change occurred c.1930, when the manufacturer number relocated from the side to the center of the label. The first two label variants date from the first decade of the 20th century. The second two are representative of what was used 1930s-1990s.

Depending on what was the tag was on, there could be different background text. Pictured is “clothing- clothing”. Other examples of background text would be “Duck Goods” or “Special Order”.

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Original vs. reproduction Talon zipper

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I just bought a repro Talon zipper to have as a backup for a jacket of mine whose zip is looking like it may start going bad soon.  The repro bears the current Talon  box T logo on the back. It’s not a bad looking job from a little bit away, same shape, same size, and I’m sure once in a jacket would probably pass muster, more-or-less.  But compared to the original, there is no comparison.  The shape of the slider is different, with curved edges, while the original is made up of straight lines. The puller is close, but is longer, as it mounts higher. The cover on the slider with the “Talon” script is wider, which accounts for a change of shape of the cutout on the slider.  The quality of the casting is much rougher on the reproduction. Instead of using one of Talon’s several distinctive stop-box designs, the repro goes for a modern, small stopbox.  I know it’s not period correct, but I do appreciate the plastic(melted?) reinforcement at the base of the zipper tape on the reproduction.  It’s a detail found on modern zippers, but one which I would consider an improvement over the zippers of the ’30s. So many original zippers I have have failed at that point.

The verdict? This particular repro was cheap and will do in a pinch. It works well, and for putting in a vintage jacket or a vintage style-one, it certainly would look better than a modern off-the shelf YKK.  However, if true period accuracy is what you’re after, I’d say you’d be better off going with the NOS zips from Mash Japan.Photobucket

Kwik Zipper

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This Kwik slide fastener dates from roughly 1932-1936. It is found on a men’s bathing suit with a zip-off tank top, a detail found in the transitional period between one or two piece suits and the topless look for men of the mid ’30s through present. The patent numbers correspond to patents no. 1814244, granted in 1931, patent no. 1752111, granted in 1930 and 1761385, granted in 1930. Photobucket

Palm Beach Cloth

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A guide for dating Palm Beach Cloth products. As with all other dating guides, consider it as a rough guideline, not as anything written in stone.  While there is a fairly continuous base of ads and dated examples to draw upon, with changes of labels, there is always overlap of the old and the new.  And as with anything else, there are usually a variety of variations (the Palm Beach Beau Brummell ties spring to mind) for any basic pattern of label.

Logos in the graphic are taken from ads referencing their usage in suits made from the fabric dating from: 1915, 1920, 1938 and 1951.

Goodall started producing Palm Beach cloth in 1912. At that point it was a cotton warp and a mohair weft. Around 1941, the fabric content was reformulated to make it softer and lighter. By the late ’40s/early ’50s, it had been changed again to include Rayon and Mohair, although ads from the early 1950s indicate the content of the fabric depended on the pattern and application of the fabric.  A Palm Beach tie from that era, for instance, was marked with a content of 50% Rayon – 32% Mohair – 12% Cotton – 6% Nylon.

While the off white undyed Palm Beach cloth suit is iconic, Palm Beach cloth was produced in a wide variety of colors and patterns.  The fabric was immediately adopted in the South, but took some time to catch on in Northern states.  The darker colors of the fabric provided a happy medium in that time for Northerners who wanted the cool fabric without attracting undesired sartorial attention. Within the first decade of production, soundalike fabrics had started to pop up and “Palm Beach” had become the layman’s term for a light colored suit.

The fabric was originally produced in Sanford, Maine. In 1931, a second plant had opened in Cincinnati, and the company headquarters relocated to that city. That plant was bought out in 1942, and retooled for the war effort. Despite this, the company headquarters remained in Cincinnati. In 1944, “Sanford” was added to “Goodall”. In 1949, the clothing branch of Goodall Sanford was renamed to simply the “Palm Beach Company”. Production of Palm Beach Cloth ended abruptly in 1954, when the name was sold. Plans were made for the former mills to continue producing the fabric for the new company, but those plans seem to have fallen through.  The mill in Maine still stands.

The Palm Beach company (in name), owned by the Cincinnati division, continued producing menswear for decades after the demise of their namesake product. The Palm Beach corporate umbrella came to encompass the brands of Varsity Town, Gant, Austin Hill, Evan Picone, John Weitz and Country Set.

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Twins

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It’s always cool to find duplicates of vintage clothes. All these were found about a year apart from their twin, from different sources.

Soon I’ll be photographing and posting for sale a twin set of deadstock mens sweater twin sets. (Quadruplets?)

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Union Labels

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An extremely rough guide to union tags. There are other unions whose tags are not represented here. Companies and tailors used what tags they had on hand, so there is overlap between different patterns of tags, and there are always exceptions and flukes.

1883 (1883-?)
NRA (1933-1936)

1934 (1934-1936) Not pictured: same as 1936 and 1939 tags
1936 (1936-1939)
1939 (1939-1949)
1949 (1949-1962)
1949 variant (1962-c.1976 ) I’ve seen examples of these on menswear dated into the 1980s, despite the union merging to form the ACTWU in 1976.

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Talon Zippers

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There are many more patterns of Talon zippers out there, so consider this a (very) incomplete guide. It is interesting, though, to see the evolution of Talon sliding fasteners over the years, 1930s-1960s, in the design of their pullers and stop boxes.

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