Hi and welcome back! This is the 8th installment of Advice from a Stylist and I truly hope you’re loving these as much as I am.
Today I want to discuss the care tag – what it is, where to find it, why you want to read it and how to use it as a tool to become a smarter shopper. In the last video, I discussed how important having CLARITY is when shopping. It’s essential that you know what you like, or at least have an idea, so you’re adding clothes to your closet that make sense for you and your life.
If you are unfamiliar, the care tag is found on the inside of your clothing, usually in the lower area. Its a small, often rectangular white tag that gives you details about the item such as: where it was made, the fabric breakdown, wash and care instructions and usually a style number.
This care tag is a tool to either help find things you like OR weed out things you don’t…let me explain.
For example, I know that I like my denim to be structured, and after looking at the care tags of my preferred jeans, I know that means I want 99% or 100% cotton, with 1% or less spandex. So, if I see a cute pair of jeans and the care tag says 85% cotton, I am not even going to bother trying them on because its not what I’m looking for.
Less options = less overwhelm
Another great example is wool! Many people, myself included, do not like the feel of wool on their bare skin. So, when I’m shopping for sweaters and look at the care tag and it says wool, I automatically remove that as an option.
Being able to understand what we actually like and how to find that helps us make better purchases – ideally ones that we wear, use and love.
Something else to note – the care tag has wash instructions! That means it will tell you if it’s a dry clean only item, or needs to be washed on cold and hung to dry.
PLEASE, if you know you’re not going to dry clean an item…do NOT buy it. Simply don’t do it. I have shrunk a few items in the past from not reading the care tag and washing them at home.
Now, you may be thinking, Maddy, I shop online, I don’t have a care tag to read.
Solid call – majority of websites will also share the fabric breakdown on the product page!
For your “virtual” care tag:
you want to find the “details” section, it could also be labeled “fit and description” or “composition”
below are examples from Shopbop, Target and H&M to show you where the information lies on different sites
As you can see above, ShopBop gives plenty of details on their site – these jeans are 99% cotton and 1% elastane so they would be a contender for me!
Above is a screenshot from Target – specifically for this green top I have – here we can see its 100% recycled polyester!
Lastly, an example from a dress from H&M – it breaks down the composition!
I hope this was helpful! If you have any questions, drop them in the comments here or shoot me a DM on Instagram!
See you next week,
Maddy
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