Boutique Vastra — Everyday women's wear explained | boutiquevastra.com
The tub, the dots and the crossed-out symbols on a care label are exact machine settings. Read them once and guesswork never ruins a dress again.
The washing tub is the master symbol. One dot inside it means a mild process at 30–40 °C. Two dots allow up to 60 °C. A crossed-out tub means do not wash the garment at all — it goes to specialist cleaning or airing only.
The dots are a ceiling, not a target. A label that allows 60 °C does not require it, and washing cooler is always the safer choice for elastane and for colour.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Match the symbol to the cloth. A woven dress with 2–3% elastane should be washed cold at 30 °C even if the label permits more. A 5% stretch knit can go to 40 °C and needs no ironing at all — the knit recovers its shape on its own.
Drying decides the final size. Untreated woven cotton shrinks 3–5% in its first wash whatever the tub says, and knits can grow 2–5% when washed hot and dried flat rather than aired. If a knit dress matters to you, air it.
The label and the size chart work together: a dress chosen with 5–8 cm of ease can absorb first-wash shrinkage, while a zero-ease dress cannot. The size chart page shows the ease allowances, and the fabric page lists which weights and blends behave which way.
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