St. John clothing is positively timeless, but if you‘ve ever found yourself looking to match or replace a piece from a set it helps to know when your pieces were originally produced. While this may not always be possible, most St. John garments made after 2001 include a coded season / group label sewn in at the side seam or behind the brand label.
The format for these tags includes two lines:
On the top line, the first two letters refer to the season and usually read as “SP” for Spring, “CR” for Cruise, "RT" for Resort, or “FA” for Fall. These letters are followed by the two numbers which represent the date code for the year in which the garment was produced. For example “FA 02” would represent Fall 2002; while “SP 10” would represent Spring 2010.
On the bottom line, the “GP” stands for “Group” and the number represents the grouping.
If you are looking to match the color or replace one of your St. John pieces, and don’t know the color name you can use this season and group codes to match the color.
If the link doesn't work, try search the blog on this site for "St. John Knits - Label Resource".
The company changed their brand label style many times over the years, and the guide can help you narrow down when the piece was produced - though it won't give you an exact year.
"RT09 / GRP3" would indicate the item came from the 2009 Resort collection, and was part of Group 3.
Hope that helps!
I have top, pants & skirt they are all light blue but the skirt is just a litty bit darker?
If your suit was produced after 2001 you can use the date codes described in the post above to help match the color. Of course, if items have been dry cleaned at different rates or exposed to different environments they may age/fade differently - which could account for the difference you are seeing between the pieces you have in your set. It is recommended that you store and dry clean sets together to avoid such issues.