CARE LABEL ISSUES OF SILK FABRIC

Swapan Kumar Ghosh, Abir Baran Das, Rajib Bhattacharyya

Abstract: Silk fabrics emerge in a wide spectrum of popular products like silk satin, silk crepe de chine, silk georgette, silk chiffon, silk taffeta, silk scarves etc. Silk being a natural and delicate fibre demands certain caring treatments during its use in textiles, apparels in particular. Silk apparels and textiles, like the other textile products, get soiled due to repeated use. These products need to be refurbished for reuse without substantively altering their functional and aesthetic properties. National and international organizations coordinate their efforts to establish objective test methods for care label instructions. Correct care of silk products ensures retaining their quality for years. Care labels in apparels provide a useful information to the end users to look after their textile products made from different fibres. These labels are basically simple, space-saving, comprehensive pictorial symbols reducing the dependence on language and guiding the consumers to clean and maintain the product in the best possible way. Care instructions play a very vital role during laundering of the textile products, particularly silk, both domestically and commercially. This paper focusses the effects of care label codes like washing, laundering, dry cleaning, ironing, drying etc. on the different phenomena like deformation, colour change, colour staining of the plain weave 100% silk fabric samples followed by the selection of the appropriate care code for greater durability and refurbishing of the fabric. Faulty laundering, boiling, steaming, uneven friction and stretching may damage the fabric quickly. The authors attempt to address these issues with the help of an intensive case study and recommend an ideal wash care method for silk apparels.

Keywords: Care label codes, washing, laundering, dry-cleaning, ironing, shrinkage, refurbishing

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0307031