Before a wedding dress is cleaned, read the circle

The five marks on a care label cover washing, bleaching, drying, ironing and professional care, and the fifth is a circle. Inside it, the letter says which professional cleaning the maker allows and the bars say how gently: a plain circle for the normal process, one bar for mild, two for very mild. Two crossed circles refuse the process outright, one for dry cleaning and one for professional wet cleaning. Under the Australian and New Zealand Standard, the crossed circle for dry cleaning is optional on the label.

General information from the ACCC and state consumer bodies about care labels and cleaning. It is not advice about your dress.

Your hands

A professional's hands

perchloroethylene and hydrocarbons

Professional dry cleaning with perchloroethylene and hydrocarbons. Normal process.
Professional dry cleaning with perchloroethylene and hydrocarbons. Mild process.
Professional dry cleaning with perchloroethylene and hydrocarbons. Very mild process.
Do not dry clean.

hydrocarbons

Professional dry cleaning with hydrocarbons. Normal process.
Professional dry cleaning with hydrocarbons. Mild process.
Do not dry clean.

professional wet cleaning

Professional wet cleaning. Normal process.
Professional wet cleaning. Mild process.
Professional wet cleaning. Very mild process.
Do not professional wet clean.

The cleaner works inside the mark: damage a dry cleaner causes is a major problem, and the dry cleaner should compensate you, based on the age and condition of the article.NSW Fair Trading

A fault in the dress itself, such as a faulty dye, goes to the retailer or the maker: where a manufacturing fault has caused the cleaning to damage the garment, the garment should be referred to the retailer or manufacturer.NSW Fair Trading

The circle, mark by mark

These are the marks the ACCC’s table gives for professional care, in the table’s own order: P, then F, then W, each in a normal process and, where the table gives a milder one, that too. The letter names the solvent or the water.

perchloroethylene and hydrocarbons. Normal process.

Professional dry cleaning with perchloroethylene and hydrocarbons. Normal process.

Which cleaning each letter allows

perchloroethylene and hydrocarbons. Mild process.

Professional dry cleaning with perchloroethylene and hydrocarbons. Mild process.

perchloroethylene and hydrocarbons. Very mild process.

Professional dry cleaning with perchloroethylene and hydrocarbons. Very mild process.

Do not dry clean.

hydrocarbons. Normal process.

Professional dry cleaning with hydrocarbons. Normal process.

Which cleaning each letter allows

hydrocarbons. Mild process.

Professional dry cleaning with hydrocarbons. Mild process.

Do not dry clean.

professional wet cleaning. Normal process.

Professional wet cleaning. Normal process.

professional wet cleaning. Mild process.

Professional wet cleaning. Mild process.

professional wet cleaning. Very mild process.

Professional wet cleaning. Very mild process.

Do not professional wet clean.

When it goes wrong

The label divides the dress’s care between your hands and a professional’s.

The cleaner’s side

A dry cleaner treats, cleans, restores and maintains clothes and other textiles with specific care requirements, among them silk. If the dry cleaner has damaged your garment or item, NSW Fair Trading treats it as a major problem, and the dry cleaner should compensate you, based on the age and condition of the article; where the damage is to one piece of a set, the dry cleaner might need to replace the full set as a reasonable settlement. If a lost item cannot be recovered, the dry cleaner is responsible for reasonably compensating you.

The maker’s side

Where the damage comes from a manufacturing fault or a failure of a component, such as incorrect stitching, faulty dyes or faulty or broken buttons, and that fault caused the dry cleaning process to damage the garment, the garment should be referred to the retailer or the manufacturer for help. Under the Australian Consumer Law a product must be of acceptable quality, which means it is safe, durable and free from defects, has an acceptable appearance and finish, and does everything that similar products are commonly used for.

Neither half can be signed away. The law guarantees that services are rendered with due care and skill, and a term of a contract that purports to exclude or restrict those guarantees is void. A business cannot take away those basic rights by anything it says or does.

Who answers when a dress comes back damaged

The guides

What does the circle on my wedding dress’s label mean?

The one mark on the dress that is written for a professional, read letter by letter: P, F and W, their bars, and what to say at the counter.
What will my wedding dress be cleaned in?

Perchloroethylene, hydrocarbon solvents and professional wet cleaning: which source names each one, which mark allows it, and the duties that sit on the cleaner.
Can I clean or press a wedding dress at home?

The four marks that govern what happens at home: the washtub and its heat, the triangle, the square, and the iron plate, each with the ACCC’s own limit.
What should I do when I hand my dress to a cleaner?

The docket, the pockets and the existing damage, line by line as NSW Fair Trading sets it out, with what happens to a dress left uncollected.
When a dress comes back damaged, is it the cleaner or the maker?

The line the law draws: a cleaner’s damage is a problem with the service, a faulty dye is a problem with the goods, and the complaint path for each, state by state.
How do I keep my wedding dress once it is clean?

What museums do with a dress that is not being worn: the lidded box, the acid-free tissue, the folds supported, and the hanger a beaded dress should not use.