Spend an evening reading vintage listings or overhearing a conversation at a busy rack and you will hear a language that sounds half technical and half secret. Someone mentions that a tee is single stitch, a pair of jeans has a chain-stitched hem and selvedge outseams, a hoodie is deadstock with the tags still attached, and the pit-to-pit is twenty-three inches. To the people saying it, it is ordinary speech. To everyone else, it can feel like walking into a room halfway through an inside joke.
This glossary is meant to close that gap. It collects the words you will meet most often when shopping for vintage clothing, grouped by what they describe, with a plain explanation of each and a note on what it does and does not tell you. None of these terms is a password to authentic vintage on its own. Together, they help you read a garment and ask better questions about it.
01. Construction terms
These describe how a garment was sewn. They are some of the most commonly used words in vintage, partly because they can hint at age, and partly because they affect how a piece looks and wears.
Single stitch. A single row of stitching on the sleeve and bottom hems of a tee. It was common on North American tees until around the mid-nineties, when most makers moved to a double row. A single-stitch hem is a helpful clue that a tee may be older, but some later shirts and many modern reproductions also use it.
Double stitch. Two parallel rows of stitching on a hem. The standard for most tees made from the late nineties onward, though not unknown earlier.
Chain stitch. A looping stitch that, on the inside, forms a chain of interlocking loops. You will see it in two main places. On denim, chain-stitched hems twist slightly as they are washed and worn, creating a rippled fade known as roping, which many denim fans love. In decoration, chain-stitch embroidery creates the looped, textured lettering found on bowling shirts, varsity jackets and workwear names.
Selvedge (or selvage). The tightly finished edge of a fabric produced on older-style shuttle looms. On jeans, you see it when you turn up the cuff: a clean edge along the outseam, often with a coloured line of thread. Selvedge is associated with older denim and with premium modern denim alike, so it tells you about the weaving method rather than the age.
Raglan sleeve. A sleeve that runs in one piece all the way to the collar, with diagonal seams from underarm to neck, rather than meeting the body at the shoulder. Common on baseball tees, sweatshirts and older athletic wear. Raglans move easily and suit broad or sloped shoulders.
Set-in sleeve. The standard sleeve, sewn into the armhole at the shoulder. When the shoulder seam sits well down the arm, it is called a dropped shoulder, a hallmark of nineties oversized fits.
Bar tack. A short, dense line of stitching that reinforces stress points, such as pocket corners and belt loops. Heavy bar tacks are typical of workwear and denim.
02. Condition terms
These describe how much a garment has been worn and what state it is in. They are frequently used in listings, sometimes generously, so it is worth knowing what each should mean.
Deadstock. Old stock that was never sold or worn. A deadstock piece from the nineties is a nineties garment in new condition, which is very different from a modern reproduction. Ideally it should show no washing, no wear and, often, original folds.
NWT. New with tags. The original retail tags are still attached. Many deadstock pieces are NWT, but not all, since tags may have been removed before storage.
NOS. New old stock. Essentially another way of saying deadstock, more common for accessories, hardware and older items.
VGC or EUC. Very good condition or excellent used condition. Worn, but with no significant flaws. These are subjective, so look for photos or check for yourself.
Distressed or thrashed. Heavily worn, with fading, holes, stains or fraying. In some corners of the market, especially band tees and workwear, a thrashed look is valued for its character.
Sun fade. Uneven fading from light, often across the shoulders and upper back. It can look beautiful on sweatshirts and jackets, or distracting on a piece meant to be a solid colour.
Cracking. Fine breaks in a screen print caused by age, washing and stretching. Light cracking is usually seen as charm. Flaking, where ink is lifting off, is a more serious issue.
03. Measurement terms
Vintage sizes are unreliable, so measurements matter more than labels. These terms come up constantly.
- Pit-to-pit (or P2P). The width across the chest, measured flat from one armpit seam to the other. Double it for an approximate chest circumference.
- Length. Usually measured from the highest point of the shoulder or the base of the collar down to the hem. Ask which, since the two can differ by a few centimetres.
- Shoulder. Seam to seam across the back. Less useful on dropped-shoulder or raglan pieces.
- Sleeve. Shoulder seam to cuff, or sometimes from the centre back of the collar. Again, check the method.
- Waist, rise and inseam. For trousers: waist straight across the top (doubled), rise from crotch seam to top of waistband, and inseam from crotch seam to hem.
- Tagged size. What the label says, which can be very different from how the piece fits now, especially after decades of washing.
Measuring a favourite garment of your own and comparing the numbers is the most reliable way to shop, particularly online.
Every term on a vintage tag is a clue. None of them is the whole story.
04. Label and tag terms
Labels are among the first things collectors check, and they come with their own vocabulary.
Neck tag. The brand label stitched at the back of the collar. Its style, font, material and country of manufacture can all point toward a period. Many collectors build up a mental library of how a brand's tag looked over the decades.
Care label. The small tag inside a side seam or at the neck listing fibre content and washing instructions. Standardised care symbols became widespread over time, so the presence or style of a care label can be a dating clue.
RN number. A registration number found on many American garments, identifying the business that made or imported them. RN numbers can be looked up, which helps identify a maker, though they do not date a garment by themselves.
CA number. Canada's equivalent, a dealer identification number on garments sold in Canada. Useful for identifying a Canadian maker or importer, especially on Canadian-made sportswear and outerwear.
Made in. Country of manufacture. Shifts in where clothing was made over the decades mean the country listed can be a helpful clue when combined with other details, but on its own it settles nothing.
Tagless. Labels printed directly on the inside of the garment rather than sewn in. Generally a later feature, more typical of tees from the two-thousands onward.
05. Fabric terms
50/50. A blend of half cotton, half polyester, common on many eighties and nineties tees and sweatshirts. 50/50 tees are often thin, soft and drape closely, and they tend not to shrink much.
Tri-blend. Cotton, polyester and rayon. Extremely soft and drapey. Found on some older tees, and very common on modern ones designed to feel vintage.
Paper-thin. A tee worn so many times that the fabric has become almost translucent. Valued by some collectors for its softness, though fragile.
Loopback and fleece. The inside textures of sweatshirt fabric. Loopback shows small loops of yarn on the inside; fleece has been brushed to make those loops fluffy. Older sweatshirts often have a dense fleece that has matted with age.
Reverse weave. A sweatshirt construction with the fabric grain running horizontally, designed to reduce shrinking in length, and often paired with side panels of ribbing. The term is closely associated with Champion, which made it famous.
Slub. Small, irregular thick spots in the yarn, giving a fabric a slightly uneven texture. Often found in older jersey and in modern fabrics designed to look aged.
Raw and rigid denim. Denim that has not been washed after weaving. Stiff at first, it softens and fades with wear according to how the owner lives in it.
06. Sportswear and merch terms
Snapback. A cap with an adjustable plastic strap at the back. Hugely popular in the eighties and nineties.
Fitted. A cap sized to the head with no adjustable closure.
Shirsey. A tee printed to look like a jersey, with a player's name and number.
Replica, authentic and on-field. Grades of jersey. Replica versions were made for fans, authentic versions closer to what teams wore, though exact meanings varied by league and decade.
Tour back. Tour dates and cities printed on the back of a band tee.
Bootleg. An unofficial piece made without a licence. Some bootlegs from the eighties and nineties are now collectible in their own right.
Reprint. A newer print of an old design. Can be licensed or unofficial.
Blank. The plain garment a design was printed on. Names of popular blanks from past decades help date tees, though again only as clues.
07. The wider words: vintage, retro, throwback
These are the broadest terms, and the ones used most loosely. Vintage generally means a garment that is genuinely old, often twenty years or more, though people disagree about the line. Retro means a newer garment in an older style. Throwback usually refers to a team or brand deliberately revisiting an older design. One-of-one is a common phrase in vintage shops, including ours, for pieces where only a single example is available.
Other popular words include grail, a piece someone has been seeking for a long time; Y2K, the style of the late nineties and early two-thousands; and curated, which describes a shop or collection selected with a particular eye rather than stocked in bulk.
When people talk about authentic vintage, they usually mean a garment whose features genuinely match its claimed era: the tag, construction, fabric and wear all agree. It is a judgement built from many small clues, not a single feature.
08. Putting the vocabulary to work
The point of all these terms is not to sound like an expert. It is to look more carefully. Next time you pick up a tee, check the hem stitch, read the neck tag, look at the care label and feel the fabric. Measure the pit-to-pit. Notice whether the print is cracking or flaking. Each observation adds a small piece to your understanding of what you are holding.
If you are in one of our shops on Queen West or at Square One, try naming what you see as you go: raglan, single stitch, loopback fleece, chain-stitched hem. It turns digging into a slower, more interesting kind of reading. Before long, the vocabulary stops feeling like a code and starts feeling like what it really is, a set of ordinary words for noticing the details that make old clothes worth wearing.
