Made with love - Handle with care

Whenever you buy a dão item you will see the words “Made with Love - Handle With Care” on the care and composition label on the inside of your garment.
But what does this exactly mean?

When sourcing our fabrics we have met and established really nice partnerships with experienced fabric suppliers. We went to visit their mills and had interesting conversations regarding all the different characteristics a fabric can have.

It is sometimes crazy to see how every component or every treatment can have a specific effect on how this fabric will react later during production, or afterwards when wearing and caring the apparel.

We sometimes got surprised during productions and had to learn a thing or two due to unforeseen reactions.  And although textile and confection should not be listed as rocket science, it can become quite complicated and it is for sure not as predictable as a 1 + 1 mathematical calculation.

Because we put a lot of effort into sourcing good qualities and according suppliers, we also learned quickly that a very important part to ensure this good quality is unmistakably the care afterwards. Since we ourselves are a family of 5, consisting of 2 adults, 2 teenagers and a little toddler, we know washing things by hand is a utopian idea which you will hardly see us do. But for sure there are some things which really can make a difference to take care and prolong the life of your favorite garment.

The 3 first cycles

1 of the most important things one of our Spanish fabric suppliers taught us is that the first 3 washing cycles that a garment undergoes are enormously decisive. That’s why they recommend always washing a newly bought item at a very low temperature the first three times you wash it. Whether it is made of cotton or another composition, it actually doesn’t matter. 

The fact is that during these 3 first cycles the fibers will settle and chances are small that they will move much more afterwards. At least if you always take the correct care instructions in mind afterwards.This is also one of the reasons why you will see most of our washing instructions recommend washing your clothes at 30 degrees.

No tumble dry

The actual biggest percentage of shrinkage will take place when using a tumble dryer.
This is affecting more than for example washing the garment at a higher temperature.
One of the reasons why we also heavily reduced the use of the tumble dryer at home, is because it is one of the highest energy consuming machines in the house. So not very sustainable either.