You open your wardrobe, look at your collection of vintage t-shirts that you bought in various second-hand or vintage stores, and suddenly you wonder if the t-shirt you bought last week at your local vintage shop is really vintage?
In this article, we will try to unravel the steps to know if your t-shirt is vintage in 3 ways!
1. One stitch/two stitches
The first indicator of how you might recognize the age of your t-shirt is the number of stitches on the sleeve. Generally, if you have one stitch on the sleeve, it means that the shirt was most likely made in the 1990s or earlier. Of course there are exceptions, but this rule of thumb is a very good and quick guide to spotting a vintage t-shirt.
2. Label
The second method to recognize a vintage T-shirt is the label on the product. At the beginning of the 20th century, brands started to print labels directly on the products, so if you have it physically there, great! The country of manufacture will also help you to identify it. In the late 1990s, major brands began to outsource their clothing production to third world countries for cost reasons and began to focus more on quantity than quality. So if you find a t-shirt with one stitch and a physical label that says "made in the USA" you are well on your way to identifying its age and you can already be 99% sure that the gem you picked up at the thrift store is vintage !
3. Copyright
The last indicator that we will mention here is the copyright on the T-shirt print. However, this method of determination is a bit more complicated and can be a bit misleading in that the copyright year refers directly to the given print, not to the production of the T-shirt. So in this case, you would have to use the previous two indicators to determine the vintage T-shirt. So, for example, if the first two methods identify your t-shirt as being from the 1980s, but the copyright year tells you 1960. You should follow the first two pointers because, as we mentioned above, the copyright year refers to the print, not the year t-shirt production!!
So, now that you know the 3 basic ways to determine a vintage t-shirt, it's your turn to determine the year of production of your t-shirt! Is your shirt vintage? Let us know in the comments!
We hope you liked the article and found this information at least a little interesting, and we look forward to seeing you next time! ♡
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