The garment: A red silk shirt with ivory vertical stripes down the front. The care label states: "hand wash cold-do not bleach-tumble dry low-warm iron or best results dryclean" with no International code symbols.

The problem: During hand washing, even in cold water as labeled, the red fabric dye bleeds, resulting in transfer of color onto the lighter design stripes.

Who's responsible? The manufacturer since the red fabric was not able to withstand all the recommended care instructions without risk of severe dye disturbance.

What to do: This shirt should be returned to the retailer or manufacturer.

Since this dye bleeding and migration occurred during hand washing, a professional drycleaning process, especially using a lower power solvent (such as petroleum, hydrocarbon, or Green Earth) may have been successful. According to the United States care labeling regulation, this garment must be able to withstand all the indicated care instructions without damage, meaning it can be washed as labeled, as well as cleaned safely in any solvent including perc. This interpretation may differ in other countries.

Featuring a garment does not imply that a manufacturer is knowingly or continually producing defective goods. While this particular item was deemed unable to withstand the recommended care process, other comparable garments may or may not hold up to the care instructions.

Copyright 2009, Drycleaning & Laundry Institute, all rights reserved.
Unauthorized duplication or distribution is prohibited.