A production run can be finished, inspected and folded, and still sit in a warehouse for three weeks because the woven labels have not arrived.
This happens constantly. Labels and packaging are small, cheap relative to the garments, and easy to think of as a finishing detail. They are neither small nor a detail on the calendar. Some of them need to be ordered before the garments are cut.
Here is where each one belongs.
What has to be in the garment before it is sewn
These cannot be added later without unpicking. They need to be in the factory before production starts, which usually means ordering them at the same time you approve your pre-production sample.
Main brand label. The one at the back neck. Woven damask, satin or cotton. Lead time is typically two to four weeks from artwork approval, longer for a first order because the loom set-up has to be made.
Care and content label. Legally required in most markets, and the content varies by market. If you are selling into the EU, the UK and the US, the requirements are not identical. Get the wording confirmed before you order, because a reprint is faster than a re-sew but you will still be opening seams.
Size label. Sometimes combined with the care label to save a component and a sewing operation, which is usually the right call.
Any woven or embroidered detail on the garment face.
The practical rule: these go in the same order as the fabric, not the same order as the packaging.
What can be added at the finishing stage
These attach to a finished garment, so they need to arrive before packing but not before sewing. Two to three weeks ahead of the ship date is usually safe.
Hangtags. Card, string or pin, printed. Two to three weeks typically. Special finishes, foiling, embossing, unusual card stock or die-cut shapes add a week or more and often carry their own minimum.
Price tickets or barcode labels. Fast to produce, but the data has to be right, and getting a full SKU list with barcodes assigned takes longer than the printing does.
Stickers, seals and tissue.
What can be last
Polybags and cartons. Short lead times and widely available. Named because they are the only components that genuinely can wait.
Rigid boxes and premium packaging do not belong in this group. A custom rigid box with a magnetic closure and a print finish can take four to six weeks and carries a real minimum. Treat it like a hangtag, not like a polybag.
The calendar, in order
| Component | Order by |
| Main label, care label, size label | With the fabric, before cutting |
| Woven or embroidered garment details | With the fabric, before cutting |
| Hangtags and price tickets | Three weeks before ship |
| Rigid boxes and premium packaging | Six weeks before ship |
| Tissue, stickers, seals | Two weeks before ship |
| Polybags and cartons | Two weeks before ship |
Three things that catch people out
Minimums are per design, not per order. A thousand labels is a normal minimum. If you have four size labels and three colourways of a main label, that is not one order, it is several, each with its own minimum. Combining size and care information onto one label is the usual way to cut this down.
First orders are slower. A woven label needs the loom set up for your artwork. Repeat orders on the same design are much faster, so the second season is easier than the first. Plan the first one with more room than you think you need.
Artwork approval is the real bottleneck. The production time is predictable. The three rounds of revising a label because the logo sits two millimetres off centre are not, and they happen while the clock runs. Approve artwork from a physical strike-off rather than a screen, because woven texture changes how fine lines read and a logo that looks clean on a PDF can lose its hairlines in damask.
One decision worth making early
Decide whether your labels are a cost line or a brand line, because it changes everything about the schedule.
A standard printed satin care label is cheap, fast and invisible. A woven damask main label with a specific edge finish, in your exact colour, is a thing customers notice and photograph, and it needs six weeks and a strike-off.
Both are valid. Choosing the second one three weeks before shipping is not.
Tirarin is a fashion accessories manufacturer making woven labels, hangtags and packaging alongside the garments they belong to, so nothing waits on a component ordered from somewhere else. See how the process works from end to end.
