Don't put your labels on me

Except maybe a vintage one. Georgia wrote a post on some of the New Zealand labels she has on her vintage clothing. She asked at the end if anyone else had any vintage New Zealand labels and I thought I would show you some of the ones I have. 

This is the label of this dress. I couldn't find any information about "Florida" but that's not surprising since there is hardly any info about old New Zealand labels.

Like Georgia, I have a couple of Horrockses dresses. If you haven't heard of Horrockses you should probably google image search them asap because they made some of the best dresses I've ever seen. While they were a brand from the UK, a manufacturer in NZ was licenced to make them under the Horrockses name. The one above was made by California Productions Ltd in New Zealand.

As you can see they both have the same label design. The labels on Georgia's ones are different. I think there were a few different labels used over the years. You can see some of them here on Vintage Fashion Guild. 

I couldn't find anything about this one either except for an old trademe listing for a 50s dress with the label "An Allene Garment". 

This is the label of a pretty recent purchase. I got really excited when I saw it because it was either made or sold right here in Christchurch at 186 High Street. When I was in high school I walked down that street almost every day. High Street is unrecognisable now. A lot of the buildings have been demolished or are really badly damaged because of the earthquake. I doubt the number 186 where this was made/sold is still there but I love the fact that this 50+ year old dress has a connection to a street that I know.

I quite often come across Glengyle knitwear in op shops. The company was started in 1951 and is still going today. This blue cardigan is my favourite but I don't think I've ever posted a photo where I was wearing it.  

This cardigan is more modern than the blue one. New Zealand had switched to the metric system by 1980 (I think) so it's probably from around or after that time. It has way more info in terms of size etc than the earlier one.

This one is from what I guess is a late 40s/early 50s dress I op shopped for a couple of dollars mistakenly thinking it was an 80s dress. When I got home I realised that the original zip had been replaced and that it was a lot older than I had thought. The only thing I could find about Barraclough was a photo of a swing tag and a dress from the 1950s from J.W. Barraclough and Co Ltd that's in the collection at Te Papa (the national museum).

A lot of my vintage clothing doesn't have labels, probably because it was handmade, but I love looking at the ones that do as they are often a good indication of how old something is. It's also pretty special having something that was made in New Zealand so long ago.