The enduring appeal of school name tapes

I hadn’t thought about Cash’s name tapes for many years. My mother used to sew them into clothes I planned to take to school. Occasionally I find one in a sock or a threadbare T-shirt and feel wistful for the years past. My name tapes were white, with a navy, serif typeface.

The other day, I discovered a pair of tights in the bottom of a drawer which belonged (or perhaps still belong) to my school friend Alice. Her name tapes were woven in green, with a sans serif typeface that looked like the Johnston one used on the London Underground. How did our mothers decide what typeface and colour would best suit their daughters?

My own daughter Lily has recently started nursery. Clothes will inevitably get mislaid. On the Cash’s website, there are all sorts of options. I spent a while wondering what type of name tape to choose. Would she prefer pink on gold? Too glitzy, and more importantly, too gender normative. What if she wants to be a builder? Black on white? A little minimalist for a toddler. White on black? Chic. Gold on black? Quite grown-up. Then I reminded myself that she isn’t yet two and can’t read. I ordered 50 name tapes, blue on white.

When they arrived, I was reminded that the name you give your child is essentially an exercise in branding. There it was, woven in blue, the decision my husband and I had made for our daughter, in the hope that it would serve her well. In the evenings, I have started to sew the name tapes into Lily’s clothes while watching TV.

I had assumed Cash’s was a relatively young company. But when I called up their office to find out more about the name behind the name tapes, Gary Powles, Cash’s operations director, explained that it was a Victorian weaver which has adapted and persevered through the ages.

Founded in Coventry in 1846 by two Quaker brothers called John and Joseph Cash (ancestors of the politician Bill Cash), the company originally made ribbons. But the introduction of the Free Trade Bill of 1860 led to continental ribbons inundating the English market. To survive, Cash’s pivoted to making woven labels on its jacquard looms. Not only did these labels allow manufacturers to identify their products, they also became hugely useful for schools, nursing homes and other institutions.

By the early 20th century, name tapes had become the core of Cash’s business. Generations of British children will have had Cash’s name tapes sewn into their clothes, with the classic style being an 8mm white tape. In 1964, Cash’s was appointed ‘Manufacturers of Woven Name Tapes to Her Majesty the Queen’. Young royals mislay their clothes, too, and Cash’s has woven name tapes for both Prince Charles and Prince William.

Some boarding schools specify what style of typeface and name tape they prefer, to make life easier for teachers and laundry staff. No pink lurex at Cheltenham College, where name tapes must use the following format: 8mm, capitals, black font on white background. The busiest time of the year for Cash’s is, unsurprisingly, late August and the start of the school year in September.

As clothing has become cheaper, the market for name tapes has declined. Plenty of parents now prefer to use a permanent pen to mark their children’s clothes, which is less expensive and time consuming. Some uniforms even come with a label on which to write a name. What’s more, British supermarkets sell school uniform at prices which mean parents can worry less about their children losing their kit. Even the royals seem to be more relaxed about their clothing, with Cash’s having lost its warrant. It’s safe to assume, though, that Prince George’s clothes aren’t being marked with a pen.

Cash’s has adapted to the times once more. The manufacturing of woven labels for shops such as M&S, Next and John Lewis is now a large part of its business. In 2014, after the company went into administration, Cash’s was acquired by the Jointak Group, which manufacturers trims and packaging in Asia. ‘We were a little slow in moving our operations to China,’ says Powles. Many of its commercial labels are now woven in China.

But Cash’s is still largely associated with school name tapes, which continue to be made in Coventry. ‘I know you, I used to have your name tapes,’ is something Powles often hears at trade shows. Some brands even prefer to use classic name tapes. They give clothes a distinctly British, slightly retro feel. Vampire’s Wife, which makes cult dresses beloved by the great and the glamorous, is one such company. ‘They initially started off with small orders, but now they buy a huge amount of 8mm labels from us, woven in gold or silver lurex font,’ says Powles. ‘They are pretty much keeping one loom going,’ he adds.

Nostalgia alone is rarely enough to keep a company afloat. But Cash’s name tapes belong to a time when possessions were more expensive and less disposable. We may be heading back into similar times, and if so, name tapes will be useful. A week after Lily started nursery, I received a message about a cardigan she had forgotten. I was pleased it hadn’t ended up in the lost property pile.