Did you say Vintage, WPL, RN or that 70's Style

What the heck is a WPL Number, anyway? 

Has it ever crossed your mind why some labels have numbers, and some do not? Well do you want to know the reason why there are some labels that have numbers and what they mean?

For instance, one of my blouses in Women’s Clothing – Pre-Owned has a WPL number.  I’ll give you the link and you can hunt for it.  Want some clues?  Just ask!

The letters WPL stand for Wool Products Labeling and those numbers are issued by the Federal Trade Commission aka the FTC.  These numbers are used to identify the manufacturer, importer or distributor. 

In fact, these WP numbers were issued from 1941 through 1959 under the Wool Products Labeling Act. 

These WPL numbers were issued from 1941 through 1959 under the Wool Products Labeling Act.

All numbers issued subsequently became RN numbers.  You’ll find these on the collar tag or even on the seam tag (might even find some replacement buttons too).

So, you may ask yourself are my own clothes vintage or not?  Well, you can find out by looking for the RN number which are five to six numbers followed by the letters RN.  Make note that 1959 and earlier, the numbers are listed as 00101 to 04086 and any year after 1959, the numbers listed are 13670 and larger and followed by RN. 

So many people talk about “Vintage” seems to be common lingo when referring to all old styles of clothing.  In fact, I always thought myself that vintage was back in the earlier years to 1900 but from my own researching I found that vintage can be 20 years ago to even 100 years ago.  We learn something new every day!

In fact, this blog can go on and on about vintage clothing and products and I honestly do not have time to write a book but by all means if you’re interested then just take a quick search on Google or Bing and I bet you’ll find a lot of information regarding vintage items and possibly even a little history.

Best of luck on all your reading!