Woven damask versus printed satin
A woven label is produced on a loom: the letters are made of thread, which means they cannot flake, crack or wash off. Ribbons and taffeta weave give a slightly raised, matte surface. It is the choice when the label is part of the product and has to survive industrial washing.
A printed label is a surface print on satin or polyester tape. Fine detail, gradients and small type come out sharper, and the per-unit cost at high quantity is lower. The trade is durability: solvent-based ink on satin is the first thing to go in a hot wash and tumble dry.
The practical rule is simple. If the label is a brand element on a retail garment, either works. If it is a care label, or the garment will be commercially laundered, weave it.
- Woven damask: thread-based, survives washing, best for brand labels on durable garments.
- Printed satin: sharp fine detail, cheaper at volume, weaker against hot wash and tumble dry.
- Both: allow for a fold and a seam allowance, and expect the visible area to be smaller than the artwork.
Folds decide how the label behaves
An end-fold has a fold at both ends and is sewn into the back neck seam, so the label sits flat against the inside of the collar. A centre-fold has a single fold and reads as a loop, and is the usual choice for a brand label that has to be visible when the shirt is on a hanger.
A loop label wraps over the seam and shows on both sides — front for the brand, back for size and origin. That is the most common configuration on a private-label tee, because it removes the need for a separate size tag.
Fold depth is what gets missed in artwork files. A 30 mm visible brand label needs roughly 50–60 mm of printed length once the folds are allowed for, and the artwork has to be laid out with the fold lines marked.
What a care label has to state
A care label is the part of the garment that gets read by a consumer, a retailer and a customs officer. At a minimum it carries fibre content with percentages, country of manufacture, and the care symbols for washing, bleaching, drying and ironing.
Fibre content has to match the actual fabric within the tolerance the destination market allows, and it has to match the commercial invoice. A label that says 100% cotton on a 95/5 cotton-elastane body is a compliance problem, not a typo.
Care symbols are read by the consumer literally: one dot versus two dots on the iron is the difference between a returned shirt and a worn one. We lay the symbols out from the fabric data we already hold for that style.
How label batches work against a garment order
Labels are produced in their own batch, separate from the shirts, and that batch has a minimum of its own. The two runs then have to meet: labels have to arrive before the sewing line reaches the neck seam, not after.
The common failure is ordering the label after the garment is confirmed. The shirt run finishes, the labels arrive two weeks later, and the order is either shipped unlabelled or held. Labels are confirmed with the garment specification, not after it.
For a smaller garment order than the label batch allows, the usual arrangement is to produce the label batch and ship the balance with the next order — the labels are held, not discarded.
- Confirm label artwork and fold before the garment order is placed.
- Label batch and garment quantity are two separate minimums.
- Care-label content follows the fabric spec, not the brand wish.
What to send us for a label quote
The artwork as vector with the fold lines marked, the label type (woven or printed), the fold (end-fold, centre-fold, loop), the finished visible size in millimetres, the colour count for woven, and the quantity.
For the care label, send the fabric composition and the destination market. We will lay out the fibre content, origin and symbol set from those two inputs rather than reproducing a competitor label, which is the most common source of compliance errors in private-label orders.
Labels are one of six decoration routes on the custom hub. The others are screen printing, embroidery, DTG and DTF, puff print, and garment dyeing — a label often runs alongside two of them on the same shirt.