By Elena Marques | 12 Mar, 2026 | Guides, Fabric Care | 14 Comments

How to read a care label

The care label is the most honest part of a garment. The swing tag is marketing, the price is positioning, but the little strip of satin inside the side seam has to state what the thing is actually made of — and in most countries it is a legal requirement to get it right. Learning to read it takes about ten minutes and will save you more money than any discount code.

Start with composition. A blend is not automatically worse than a pure fibre — a little elastane keeps a rib collar from going slack, and a touch of nylon makes a merino sock survive a winter. What matters is the ratio. Anything under about five per cent synthetic is doing a structural job. Anything over thirty per cent is usually doing a cost job, and it is the reason a jumper pills after six wears.

Then read the wash symbols, which are more forgiving than most people assume. The tub with a number is a maximum, not an instruction: a 40° label washes perfectly well at 30°, and cooler water is the single biggest thing you can do to extend a garment's life. A crossed-out triangle only means no bleach. The circle is dry clean, and if it has a P inside it, any high-street cleaner can handle it.

The line most people skip is the country of origin paired with the fibre. "Made in Portugal" on a 100% merino label tells you the garment was knitted somewhere with a long spinning tradition and enforced labour standards. It does not tell you where the wool was farmed — which is exactly why we publish the mill for every VESTRA piece, alongside the label, on the product page.

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