How care labels work
The symbols are not advice. They state the most severe treatment the garment can take without irreversible damage — which is why they outrank anything general said about the fibre.
In detail
Five symbols cover the whole system, in a fixed order: a washtub for washing, a triangle for bleaching, a square for drying, an iron for ironing, and a circle for professional textile care. The numbers in the washtub are a maximum temperature in degrees Celsius; a bar underneath means a mild process and a double bar a very mild one; a hand in the tub means hand washing at up to 40°C. Dots carry temperature elsewhere — three, two and one on the iron correspond to maximum soleplate temperatures of 200°C, 150°C and 110°C, the last without steam. The bleaching triangle has three states, and the middle one is the one most people miss: an empty triangle permits any bleaching agent, a triangle with two diagonal lines permits only oxygen or non-chlorine bleach, and a crossed triangle forbids bleaching altogether. The principle matters more than any individual symbol. The body that devised the system states that a label indicates the MAXIMUM SEVERITY of treatment the article can withstand. So it is a specification for that made-up garment — dyes, finishes, interlinings and trims included — and it outranks anything general said about the fibre.
Why
- Polyester is explained by How care labels work
The fibre appears at TWO ironing settings, which is the point rather than a contradiction.
- Machine washing is explained by How care labels work
- Tumble drying is explained by How care labels work
- Ironing is explained by How care labels work
Hacks and claims involving this
Sources for this page
Sources
GINETEX, The International Association for Textile Care Labelling · Standards body
Relied on for: The five symbol families and their meanings: washtub numerals as maximum temperature, bars for mild and very mild processes, hand wash at 40°C, the three bleaching variants — any bleaching agent allowed, only oxygen / non-chlorine bleach allowed, and do not bleach — tumble drying at 80°C and 60°C, and ironing soleplate maxima of 200°C, 150°C and 110°C without steam. (states this directly)
GINETEX Technical Booklet — international care labelling system
GINETEX, The International Association for Textile Care Labelling, 2018 · Standards body
Relied on for: That all indications refer to the maximum severity of treatment the consumer can use without damaging the article, that underlabelling should be avoided, that the labelled processes are intended to avoid irreversible damage, and the definitions of chlorine bleach as releasing hypochlorite ions and oxygen bleach as releasing a peroxygen species. (states this directly)