How old is this dress?

[PrettyParrot]

Or rather, how do I find out how old it is? The tag has gone yellowish with age so am guessing a good decade or so.

I'd happily wear it myself as I am unfashionable AF, but am reluctant to remove the original tag if it turns out to have rarity value 😂

I doubt Bhs sold anything of rarity value. Apart from their pension schemes sold to a con man for £1. Wear it.

I'm pretty sure it has no rarity value if you like it (wash & iron) wear it

I doubt anything from BHS would have rarity value. It was a cheaper version of M&S more Primark really. Clothing was aimed at the middle aged and of average quality. I had a Saturday job with them in the early 80s and wouldn’t buy anything from them apart from lighting.
If you like the dress wear it. It’s unlikely to make you a millionaire.

It's definitely not going to have rarity value! It's a cheap BHS dress.

It looks like the logo that wikipedia subtitles as 1995-2010, so if that's to be trusted, probably from this period (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Home_Stores)

If it's vintage (classed as >20 years, so from the first part of this period) that still doesn't mean it has some amazing resale value. If you like it, wear it and remove the tag. If you're not going to wear it, you might as well keep the tag on for getting rid of it (charity shop or resale).

No rarity value I'm afraid. I would guess 2013 from the barcode label. The small buttons would have been giant monstrosities if it was 1990s, stores closed 2016 so 10 years of living in the back of someone's wardrobe seems right.

I reckon it's late 90s/very early 00s

Based on the price and style, I'd say it's about twenty years old. I'm absolutely certain it has no value (sorry OP!). It looks quite nice - if you like it, just wear it!

Seeing the tag reminded me of when they computerised their checkouts, well before scanning was introduced. The six figure code was entered to register the price and sale and also fed back to the stock system for reordering and sales figures.
We all had our own cash tray so that they could monitor theft and mistakes. If a customer claimed you’d given them the wrong change ( a common way of defrauding shops) they could quickly check what should be in the till on the shop floor rather than having to go up to the office with the till roll to spend half an hour working out whether the customer was right.
The code on the bottom used to have the price at the end backwards. This was when a pricing gun was used and labels were removed or changed by customers. You had to use the code rather than the label, again to stop theft/fraud.

Agree, they sold great light fittings!!

I’m going with 1995 / 96?
It’s the buttons and the collar that make me think this.

I miss their lights.

The lighting department was always so hot it was great in winter, ours was upstairs and as you went up the escalator you could feel it getting warmer :)

This is really interesting, thank you for taking the time to reply!

To everyone who made the radical suggestion that I Wear The Dress, <gasp>

I just thought I'd see if it could be worth something! My tatty old Care Bear collection is now worth over £200 at a conservative estimate, so anything is possible....

The still exist online - I only know that because of this thread though. I quite like the pirate ship light, but alas I have no small people to buy it for BHS Pendant lights

I would wear it! The colour is really nice! I doubt there will be any resale value (nothing to stop you checking online although it's a summer dress so it may not be the best time of year) and the explanation above is really interesting.

OP, if it's from around 2005 onwards, it may have the year on the care label. I have BHS items with e.g. J/07, C/13 & AW14 on them, for 2007, 2013 & 2014. AW must refer to Autumn/Winter; perhaps they used single letters to denote individual months/collections, or maybe C refers to Christmas.
Items I have from the late 1990s or early 2000s don't appear to have a year on the label.

Oh BHS I do miss you.

https://vintageclothingguides.com/tags-labels/how-to-tell-if-bhs-is-vintage/

Just found this article about labels.

It's not that old based on the label style
And price and style

I agree 2005-7

Hmm... The style is quite dated, and gives me early 00s/late 90s vibes. But £30 seems quite expensive for a BHS dress of that era, but it being pure cotton might have pushed the price up.
I also feel like the rip-able section on the tag for taking the price off is a newer invention...
I'm going to guess around 2005.

I think it's really nice! Shame it's a 16 or I'd make you an offer

Thanks for all further advice, I am currently wearing it and am very happy 😁 if it turns out to have been worth a fortune (unlikely), oh well!

I found a Top Shop cardigan complete with tags when I had a clear out. Sold it for £150, I paid £12 for it so was v happy with that.

I'm glad you're enjoying it.
As it has the later BHS logo it's from 1995-2010. So quite a big window.
I used to buy their school uniform skirts to go clubbing! 🤣