What information do you need to include on wash care labels and why?

Everyone is familiar with wash care labels. Located on every piece of clothing and product from the textiles industry, wash care labels give important information about the product and how to care for it.

When it comes to creating your own wash care label, it can be difficult to know what information you need to include and why.

To make things easier for you, we’ve created this guide about what you need to include.  

 

Fibre content.

The fibre content explains what percentage of each fibre was used to make the garment. For example, your garment could be made from 50% cotton, 50% polyester.

In the UK, fibre content is a legal requirement in the apparel and textiles industry.

It’s important to let your customers know exactly what your garments are made of, to help them avoid any allergic reactions.

If you are shipping your product overseas, the fibre content must be understandable by your customers and must be printed in their language. For example, if your product is sold in Spain, the fibre content will also need to be printed in Spanish.

 

Country of origin

The country of origin gives information on where the product was made. It can be represented simply as a flag.

Generally speaking, the country of origin is not compulsory in the EU. However, it is illegal to mislead your customers over the origin of your product.  

To avoid any misleading about the product’s origins, it’s always best to include the country of origin. Plus, if your product is British-made, you shouldn’t pass on an opportunity to let your customers know.

 

Wash care labelling

Care labelling gives your customers information on how to care for your product.

Although not a legal requirement, care labelling is strongly encouraged. Without this information, customers would not know how to wash, dry or iron the product and risk damaging it by accident.

If damaged while washing, your customers are likely to blame the quality of the product or your brand, as they had no wash care instructions that warned them of any possible damage.

Wash care instructions are generally represented in symbols, which act as a simple, space saving shorthand for the garment’s care. The symbols are broken into five categories, washing, bleaching, drying, ironing and professional care.

A full guide to the symbols can be downloaded here.

 

http://www.loveyourclothes.org.uk/sites/default/files/content/LYC_get_to_know_care_labels.pdf

 

Hazard instructions

Flammability information is a legal requirement for certain types of clothing.

For example, nightwear garments and children’s nightwear must satisfy the flammability requirements specified in British Standard 5722 and carry a permanent label showing whether or not they meet the Flammability Standard.

To make products safe for customers to use, any possible hazards such as fire risk must be included as a warning label. For certain types of products, such as extreme sports clothing, these hazard information labels are incredibly important for knowing if the product is fit for purpose. 

 

Size

In clothing garments, the size isn’t a legal requirement but is essential for letting your customers know if the product will fit them or not.

On care labels, they come in standardised sizes or measurements, such as small medium or large or units such as 8, 10, and 12 for women’s clothing.

 

Conclusion

Although only some information is a legal requirement, the more information you can include on a wash care label is better for your customers.

When including the information, it is best if you can reduce it into shorthand symbols to avoid lots of small, hard to read text on a label.

For any more information on wash care labels, get in touch with our team today.