Where should a size label go on clothing?

Size labels are most commonly placed at the side seam, roughly at underarm or waist height depending on garment type, where they can be located quickly by a customer or retail associate without unfolding the garment. Some brands combine the size label with the main neck label instead, particularly on simpler garments like basic t-shirts.

What information must legally appear on a clothing label?

In the United States, fiber content and country of origin are legally required on nearly all apparel, and care instructions are required under the FTC Care Labeling Rule. In the European Union, fiber content labeling is mandatory under Regulation 1007/2011, while care and origin labeling are recommended rather than strictly mandated by that specific regulation, though many EU member states and retailers require them in practice.

What is an RN number on a clothing label?

An RN, or Registered Identification Number, is issued by the US Federal Trade Commission and identifies the business responsible for a textile, wool, or fur product. It is optional — a company may use its full legal name instead — but registering for an RN lets a brand display a number rather than its complete legal business name on labels, and one RN covers all products from that company.

Garment Labels • Placement & Information

Garment Label Placement and Required Information

Where a label goes is a comfort and manufacturing decision. What it says is, in most cases, a legal one. Here is how the two work together across the common placement zones.

Placement is driven by two factors: which garment category it is, and which labels need to be visible or scannable without unfolding the item.

Placement Zone	Common Garment Types	Labels Typically Placed Here
Neck	T-shirts, shirts, dresses, sweaters	Main/brand label, care label, fiber content, country of origin
Side Seam	T-shirts, activewear, dresses	Size label, flag label, RN/CA number
Waistband	Trousers, shorts, skirts, underwear	Main label, size label, RFID tag
Hem	T-shirts, jackets, trousers	Care label (as an alternative to neck placement), warning label
Pocket	Jeans, trousers, jackets	Leather patch, brand flag label
Sleeve	Jackets, sweatshirts	Brand flag label, size label on some technical wear

Eight fields cover almost every piece of information a garment label carries. Not all eight are legally mandatory in every market — see the Compliance & Certification guide for the specific legal requirements by country.

Brand

The brand name or registered trademark. Not legally mandated in most markets, but effectively required for any commercial product.

Size

The size designation using the sizing standard of the target market — US, UK, EU, and Asian size systems all differ, and a garment sold in multiple markets sometimes needs multiple size references.

Care Symbols

Standardized icons for washing, bleaching, drying, ironing, and professional cleaning, governed internationally by ISO 3758. The United States uses the FTC Care Labeling Rule (16 CFR Part 423), which permits either symbols or written instructions.

Fiber Composition

The percentage breakdown of fibers in the garment, using only the generic fiber names permitted under the applicable regulation — the US Textile Fiber Products Identification Act in America, or Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 in the European Union.

Country of Origin

Where the garment underwent its last substantial transformation during manufacturing. Required for customs clearance in the US, EU, and most import markets, independent of where the raw fabric originated.

Style No.

An internal reference number the brand or factory uses to identify the specific style, color, and sometimes production batch — mainly an operational tool for reordering and quality tracking rather than a compliance requirement.

Barcode/QR

A scannable code linking to retail SKU data, or increasingly, to a digital product passport carrying supply chain and material information — a category the EU is moving toward mandating for textiles from 2027 under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation.

RN/CA Number

A Registered Identification Number (RN) issued by the US Federal Trade Commission, or a Canadian Attorney (CA) number issued by the Competition Bureau of Canada, identifying the business responsible for the product. An RN is optional under US law but common practice, since it lets a company use a number instead of its full legal name on the label; once issued, one RN covers all of a company's products.

Neck placement is the default for information-dense labels — care, fiber, and origin — because it is the one spot a customer reliably checks. But it is also the highest-friction skin contact zone on the garment, which is exactly why heat transfer and tag-free label options concentrated on activewear and children's wear over the past decade.

Side seam and waistband placement solve the comfort problem but introduce a visibility tradeoff: a size label at the side seam is easy to check on a hanger, but a customer trying the garment on will not see it as readily as a neck label. Brands producing multi-market SKUs often split information across two zones deliberately — brand and legally required disclosures at the neck, size and internal reference numbers at the side seam — rather than cramming every field into one location.

Getting placement wrong is a common source of first-run sample rejections. A size label sewn too close to a side seam allowance can pucker the fabric after the first wash; a neck label using a stiff woven material on a lightweight jersey tee can distort the neckline. These are the kinds of issues a factory catches at the pre-production sample stage — see the Buyer Guidelines & Approval Process guide for how that review typically works.

Building Your Label Spec Sheet?

Use SDF Clothing's free wash care label generator to build compliant care symbol sets, or talk to our team about placement standards for your specific product category.

Try the Wash Care Label Generator See Compliance Requirements →