Label Compliance Basics for New Brands

The four things every label must carry

Across virtually every developed market, a garment label needs to answer four questions:

1. What is it made of? Fibre composition by percentage, totalling 100%.
2. Where was it made? Country of manufacture — where the garment was assembled.
3. How do I care for it? Washing, drying, ironing and cleaning instructions.
4. Who is responsible for it? The company placing it on the market.

Get these four right and you satisfy most of the requirement in most markets. The differences are in the detail of how each is expressed.

United States

Governed by the FTC Textile and Wool Acts, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.

• Fibre content — by percentage, in descending order, using generic fibre names. Fibres under 5% are listed as "other fibre" unless they have a functional purpose.
• Country of origin — "Made in [country]". For imports this must be conspicuous and on the front of the label or otherwise easy to find.
• Business identity — either your full registered company name, or an RN number (Registered Identification Number). An RN is free to obtain from the FTC and takes minutes to apply for online.
• Care instructions — required under the Care Labeling Rule. Must be permanently attached and legible for the useful life of the garment. Words are acceptable in the US; symbols alone are not sufficient.

The US care label must be permanently attached — a hang tag does not satisfy this. It has to be sewn or heat-transferred into the garment.

European Union and UK

Governed by EU Regulation 1007/2011, retained in UK law post-Brexit with essentially the same requirements.

• Fibre composition is mandatory and must use the standardised fibre names listed in the regulation.
• Language — composition must appear in the official language(s) of each member state where it is sold. In practice, multi-market brands print several languages on one label.
• Care instructions are not legally mandatory in the EU, unlike the US — but they are commercially expected and most retailers require them.
• Non-textile parts of animal origin (leather trim, horn buttons, feather filling) must be declared with the phrase "Contains non-textile parts of animal origin".
• Country of origin is not mandatory EU-wide for textiles, but is required by several member states and by most retail buyers.

Building one label for several markets

Rather than producing a different label per country, build one that satisfies the strictest requirement in each category. A typical combined label carries:

• Fibre composition in 2–4 languages
• "Made in [country]"
• Care symbols plus short English wording (symbols for the EU, words for the US)
• Your company name or RN number
• Size marking

This normally needs a longer label or a book fold. It costs a little more per unit than a minimal label, and far less than running separate SKUs per market.

Categories with extra rules

Compliance mistakes that stop shipments

• Percentages that do not total 100. The most common error and an automatic customs flag.
• Estimating instead of verifying. Get the composition in writing from your fabric supplier. "About 95% cotton" is not a compliant declaration.
• Marketing names instead of generic fibre names. "Bamboo" is usually legally "viscose". Trade names for performance fabrics must map to a generic fibre.
• Care info on a hang tag only. In the US it must be permanently attached to the garment.
• Missing the RN or company name. A logo alone does not identify the responsible business.
• One-language labels for multi-country sales. Legal in the country of that language, non-compliant next door.

If you send us your fibre composition and the list of countries you sell into, we lay out a compliant label and send it for your approval before anything is printed — at no charge.