Care Labelling

What are care labels? Care labels indicate how to clean textile articles in the best possible way. Care symbols provide all the necessary information on washing, bleaching, ironing, dry cleaning and tumble drying.

 Consumers usually don’t have the experience or technical knowledge to decide which care treatment is suitable, and would have great difficulty in deciding on the appropriate care treatment of the textile item because it does not depend solely on the main fabric. Indeed, all the components of the textile need to be taken into account including, other fibres, accessories, dying, finishing treatments and texture.

Using care labels provides the consumer with care information he does not have to decide on. Care labelling is determined under the responsibility of the garment maker in common interest of textile manufacturers, drycleaners and of course consumers.

Thus care symbols are recommendations on how to clean a textile article on which they are affixed, they should not be considered as a use guarantee neither as a quality mark. Symbols refer to maximum permissible treatments that a textile article can bear without irreversible damage.

Responsibility for labelling?

The manufacturer is responsible for proper labelling of textile fibre products when they are ready for sale or delivery to the consumer.

A textile fibre product is considered “ready for sale or delivery” to the consumer when the manufacturing or processing of the product is basically complete. Small details, such as finishing a hem or attaching buttons, do not excuse the product from the labelling requirement.

Wool must be labelled as soon as it is converted into a manufactured form, that is, when the fibre is blended, dyed, combed or twisted in any manner. (Products intended for export to a foreign country are exempted.) The importer is responsible for proper labelling of imported textile products. Custom merchants and tailors are responsible for showing properly labelled bolts, samples and swatches to customers.

There are three different categories of labelling requirements that affect textile products:

(1) Fibre content

(2) Country of origin

(3) Care instruction

Complying with the Rule

The Care Labelling Rule requires manufacturers and importers to attach care instructions to clothing.

Instructions and Warnings you must:

• Provide complete instructions about regular care for the garment, or provide warnings if the garment cannot be cleaned without harm.
• Ensure that care labelling instructions, if followed, will cause no substantial harm to the product.
• Warn consumers about certain procedures that they may assume to be consistent with the instructions on the label, but that would harm the product.

 

Ensure that care labels remain attached and legible throughout the useful life of the product. 

Reasonable Basis

you must have a reasonable basis for all care instructions, including warnings. That means you must have reliable evidence to support the care instructions. For example, you cannot say “Dryclean Only” unless you have proof that washing is harmful to the garment. What constitutes reliable evidence depends on several factors.

 

• In some cases, experience and industry expertise can serve as a reasonable basis.
• In other instances – for example, when a dye is used that is known to bleed or when beads that are known to be damaged often in dry-cleaning are used – test results showing that the garment can be cleaned as recommended without damage may be required.

 

• When a garment contains several components, you must have reliable evidence showing that the garment as a whole will not be damaged when cleaned as directed. The updated Rule clarifies that results of tests on components of garments can serve as a reasonable basis as long as you have reliable evidence supporting the care instructions for the garment as a whole. For example, testing the components of a garment is not an adequate basis for a “wash” instruction if the colour of one part bleeds onto another when the finished garment is washed.

 

Fabric testing and care

Fabric testing is an important part of the fashion industry to ensure your materials and products are safe to use and fit for their purpose. It is important that garments meet product liability, environmental and other legislations.

SATRA provide a physical testing service that includes testing measurements of:

 

·          Strength, Durability, Resistance to tearing,

 

·          Snagging, Colour fastness, Heat, Water and other agents

 

Materials can be tested against all types of standards for consumer products, as well as measuring physical properties in fabrics.

 

 

A chemical and analytical service can be provided to demonstrate that your materials and products are free from restricted substances, and to determine causes of odours and discolouration problems. The service can also provide characterisation of all types of fibres.

 

When to Label Garments

 

• Domestic manufacturers must attach care labels to finished products before they sell them.

• Importers must ensure that care labels are attached to products before they sell them in to different countries.

 

 

Labelling Clothing

• Labels must be attached so they can be seen or easily found by consumers at the point of sale.
• If labels can’t be seen easily because of packaging, additional care information must appear on the outside of the package or on a hang tag attached to the product.
• Labels must be attached permanently and securely and be legible during the useful life of the product.
• A garment that consists of two or more parts and is always sold as a unit needs only one care label if the care instructions are the same for all the pieces. The label should be attached to the major piece of the suit. If the suit pieces require different care instructions or are designed to be sold separately, like coordinates, then each item must have its own care label.

                       

By Martin Huckle