A woven label is a tiny piece of cloth. Yarn is the colour; the loom is the printer. It is not a paper hangtag and it is not a heat-transfer badge. Buyers who say “main label, satin, black on white” still owe the mill a weave, an edge and a fold.
TrimGem University treats brand labels and care tapes as identity accessories on a one-stop BOM — next to RFID, hangtags and transfers. The Guangzhou catalogue will keep adding label constructions; damask versus taffeta does not change.
Weave: damask, taffeta, satin
Mill English is not always the same as a textile textbook, but the commercial split is stable:
- Taffeta (plain / “plane”) — warp usually fixed (black or white), weft draws the mark. Fewer colours, firm, cheap. Fine for size tabs and simple brands.
- Damask — higher definition, the logo “carved” in the weave. The default for a readable brand name at small size.
- Satin — extra warp density, smoother face, the tailoring and fashion hand. Ground colour may need a later dye or heat-set if the loom cannot weave it.
Polyester filament is the industrial fibre: it survives factory heat and wash far better than a cotton tape. Cotton and silk appear when the brief is infant-soft or luxury; nylon when abrasion and shine matter. High-temperature claims in mill catalogues (polyester holding colour below a stated ironing heat) are process claims — still test the sewn garment.
Woven-edge versus cut-edge
Woven-edge (selvedge, often shuttle or crochet) is a single-width tape with a real woven bound edge. Soft, no fused burr, colour-limited on classic shuttle looms (often a handful of weft colours). Japanese and luxury programmes still prefer it.
Cut-edge is a wide panel, then hot-cut or ultrasonic slit into labels. Polyester melts and seals. Hot-cut is cheaper and a little hard; ultrasonic is cleaner. Fast fashion lives here because width, colour count and price work. Centre-fold, end-fold, mitre and die-cut shapes are finishing, not weave.
Fish-yarn (clear polyester) crochet edges and extra weft “heavy shuttle” logos are extras on the quote.
Main label versus care tape
The brand label is identity. The care tape (wash label) is the durable legal and care information — fibre, origin where required, ISO 3758 symbols. They can be one woven article or two. A paper hangtag does not replace a durable care tape in markets that require a permanent label.
RFID yarn or a sewn-in inlay is an add-on, not a weave.
Fold style is a sewing spec: centre-fold at the neck, loop-fold, straight cut with heat-seal ends. A stiff hot-cut taffeta on infant skin is the wrong edge even if the logo is pretty. Outdoor programmes sometimes add a water-repellent coat or a reflective yarn — those are extra tests, not a weave upgrade.
Artwork: keep letter height readable at the woven dpi. A hairline serif that works in a PNG will fill in on taffeta. Damask is the usual fix, not a smaller loom.
TrimGem specs labels as weave + edge + fold + fibre + stitch-down. A PNG of a logo is artwork, not a label.