What the symbols on a clothing label mean
Five shapes carry every laundry instruction there is: a tub for washing, a triangle for bleach, a square for drying, an iron for ironing and a circle for the professionals. Once you can read those, a garment label and a washing machine in a language you don't speak both stop being a guess.
A bar under a shape means "be gentler than normal"; dots mean heat, and more dots mean hotter; a line struck through the whole symbol means don't. This page covers the 25 symbols a traveller actually meets — the full standard has more temperature variants than anyone needs to memorise.
Washing — the tub
A number inside the tub is the maximum temperature in °C. Bars underneath mean the machine should go gentler: one bar is a reduced spin and less agitation, two bars is the delicate or wool programme.
- A normal machine wash at up to 30°C. This is what most travel clothing asks for, and in practice it cleans everyday wear perfectly well.
- A normal machine wash at up to 40°C — the standard setting for cottons and mixed loads. Anything labelled 40° is also safe at 30°.
- A hot wash, up to 60°C. You will see this on bedding, towels and hard-wearing cotton. Almost nothing in a traveller's bag needs it, and hot water is what shrinks things.
- A single bar under the tub means a reduced spin speed and gentler agitation — the "easy care" or "synthetics" programme on most machines. Common on shirts and technical fabrics.
- Two bars means the delicate or wool programme: a lot of water, almost no agitation and a slow spin. This is the setting for merino, silk and anything fine.
- A hand in the tub means no machine at all. Use water under about 40°C, squeeze rather than scrub, and don't wring it out — roll it in a towel instead.
- A crossed-out tub means the garment must not be washed in water at all. Check the circle symbol on the same label: it almost always needs professional cleaning instead.
Bleach — the triangle
Three symbols and you will only ever act on one of them, but it is worth knowing which, because "oxygen bleach only" is on a great many stain removers.
- An empty triangle means the fabric tolerates any bleach, including chlorine. Rare outside white cotton.
- Two diagonal lines inside the triangle means oxygen-based bleach only — the kind in most colour-safe stain removers and "oxi" powders. Household chlorine bleach will damage the fabric or strip its colour.
- A crossed-out triangle. The most common of the three, and it rules out most stain removers as well as bleach itself, so check before you attack a spill in a hotel room.
Tumble drying — the square with a circle
A circle inside a square always means a tumble dryer. Dots are heat: one is low, two is normal. This is the family most worth reading before you hand a bag to a wash-and-fold shop, because their default is hot.
- One dot means a low-heat setting. Use it for anything with elastane, for technical fabrics and for anything you'd rather did not shrink.
- Two dots means the fabric tolerates a standard hot dryer cycle. Typical of ordinary cotton and household linen.
- A crossed-out square-and-circle. Very common on merino, silk, technical shirts and anything with a printed graphic. If you are using a per-kilo laundry shop, this is the symbol to point at when you hand over the bag.
Drying without a machine — the plain square
The family that matters most on the road, because most travellers are drying clothes in a room rather than in a machine. The line inside the square tells you how to hang it.
- A curved line at the top of the square: hang it up, on a line or a hanger, and let it drip dry. The default for most travel clothing.
- A horizontal line across the middle: lay the garment out flat rather than hanging it. Knitwear and merino stretch under their own wet weight, which is what this is protecting against.
- Three vertical lines: hang it while still soaking, without wringing or spinning. Mostly on shirts that would otherwise crease badly — you trade drying time for not needing an iron.
- A diagonal stroke in the top-left corner, added to any of the drying symbols: keep it out of direct sunlight. Sun fades dark dyes and degrades some synthetics — relevant if you're drying things on a balcony in a hot country.
Ironing — the iron
Dots again, and the same rule: more dots, more heat. The maximum soleplate temperatures are roughly 110°C, 150°C and 200°C.
- One dot, up to about 110°C, and usually no steam. This is the setting for synthetics, elastane blends and anything with a print.
- Two dots, up to about 150°C. Wool, silk and polyester blends. Most hotel irons on their middle setting are somewhere near this.
- Three dots, up to about 200°C, with steam. Cotton and linen only — it will melt a synthetic shirt in seconds.
- A crossed-out iron. Hang the garment in a steamy bathroom instead: twenty minutes near a hot shower takes most creases out of a travel shirt without touching it.
Professional cleaning — the circle
These are instructions for a dry cleaner, not for you. They are on the label because the cleaner needs them — but the crossed-out one tells you something you do need to know.
- A P in the circle tells a cleaner they may use perchloroethylene, the ordinary dry-cleaning solvent. For you it simply means: this is a dry-clean garment, don't put it in a laundromat drum.
- An F means only hydrocarbon solvents may be used — a gentler process, on more delicate garments. Again, a cleaner's instruction rather than yours.
- A crossed-out circle. Solvents would damage the fabric, the coating or the trim. Common on waterproof shells and anything with a taped seam.
- A W means a professional water-based process rather than solvent. You'll see it on modern wool suits and structured garments; it is not the same as "machine washable".