What do our labels say about us?

Like it or not, labels matter.

So how many of us pay attention to the labels we wear? Clothing, shoes, jewellery, etc.?

Put another way- does your inner ego smart with vanity or shirk in apologetic anxiety when the cloak girl (or boy... calm down) takes your coat and silently judges you? (These would be establishments which, as a general rule, avoid photos of food on the menu.)

Allow me to elaborate with a trip down memory lane. Anyone remember the shoe brand, KEDS? (Maybe a question for my fellow Americans of a certain age.) They were everywhere, easily spotted by their cornflower-blue rubber stamp-sized badge on the heel. I yearned for a pair, but with five siblings and family on a budget settled for the counterfeit ZEDS from Zayre, (these and polo shirts with an embroidered donkey foisting an oversized flag in lieu of mallet).

Sigh.

In elementary school I suffered the indignity of one 'friend' inspecting my box-fresh ZEDS for the pop of blue to ensure I wasn't a social pariah.

We've since drifted.

Cue the baby violins.

Stick with me. I'm going somewhere with this.
The point is of course brands and labels matter. But as we mature and our tastes evolve to become more refined (or not, no judgement) they matter less in that outré, superficial manner they did in our youth and more as a reflection of our values. When launching spotted-seal, we had fun creating our labels - labels, swing tags, logos, taglines, copy, etc etc... and never knew how much decision making was involved.

LOTS of decisions.

We aimed to reflect quality, craftsmanship of our clothing and hopefully touch of heritage as a truly British brand. You know, something you'd be proud to hand over to the cloak girl 😉