PDF guide · 39 pages
Shop knowing exactly what you’re buying. This guide shows you how to read a label, tell 24 fibers and 35 fabrics apart, and care for what you buy.
$19.99PDF guide · delivered by email
A note from Lisa
These are the words Lisa opens the guide with.
“I’m Lisa, a color analysis & branding expert, and I created this guide to help you decode the fabrics of your clothes and accessories, using different criteria.”
Understanding fabrics will let you:
A look inside · 39 pages
Eight pages out of 39: the cover, the label, the washing symbols, the families, three fiber pages and a table of fabrics.
What’s in the guide
You start with the label and end with the fabric: one page per fiber, tables for the fabrics.
Every fiber has its own page, always built the same way. You find the same five landmarks from one fiber to the next.
The words that describe the fiber: soft, fluid, strong, scratchy…
How long it lasts, and what wears it out.
Low, moderate or high, with the reason in a few words.
A Yes or No tag, so you can choose by your values.
Machine, dryer, ironing: three lines, with small symbols.
Page 4
On a US clothing label, you’ll find four things. The guide explains each one.
Given as a percentage: for example “60% cotton, 40% polyester.” It shows the share of each fiber, by weight.
In words or in symbols: washing, drying, ironing, dry cleaning. They help you avoid damaging the fabric.
“Made in…” (sometimes misleading, but useful for understanding production routes).
A company name or an RN number, a registration number the FTC gives to US businesses.
Federal law asks for them: the Textile Act (content, maker, origin of imports) and the Care Labeling Rule (care).
Expert tip
Run your fingers over the fabric: a natural fiber often feels more alive to the touch (warmth, irregularity, softness), while a synthetic fiber feels smoother, colder or “slippery.”
Pages 5 to 7
On a US label the symbols come in a row, in this order: washing, bleaching, drying, ironing, professional cleaning. Here is what each one means.
Washing machine
Dots inside the tub = maximum water temperature
More dots mean hotter water, up to six dots: 200°F (95°C).
Cycle
Do not wash
Clothes made outside North America may use other symbols, for example a number in the tub instead of dots.
Tumble dryer
Natural drying (a square without a circle)
Letter inside the circle = the solvent the cleaner can use
Newer labels may drop the A and add a W for professional wet cleaning.
Iron
The iron symbol means dry or steam ironing.
A red cross always means: don’t. These are the US symbols, the ones used on labels in the United States.
Page 8
Natural, man-made or synthetic: knowing which family a piece comes from already says a lot about it.
Pages 9 to 32
Pick a fiber to see its card in short. In the guide, each fiber fills a page, with all its landmarks.
Pages 33 to 38
The guide tells the fiber (cotton, wool, polyester…) from the fabric (denim, jersey, poplin…).
“The fiber mostly determines comfort and durability. The fabric mostly defines drape, hold and use.”
For each fabric, a table gives the possible fibers and the key facts: how it feels, what it does best and what it’s mainly used for.
Who it’s for
The guide gives you landmarks on fabrics. The choice is yours.
Fiber content, care instructions, origin: page 4 tells you where to look.
One page per fiber: what it brings, what it asks for, its environmental impact.
A fabric you like on paper has to feel right on your skin too.
Prices and options
The guide alone, with the body shape guide, or with everything you need for your wardrobe. Checkout is in US dollars.
The guide alone
To understand your fabrics
$19.99 PDF
The PDF arrives by email after checkout.
The Style Bundle
$39.99 both guides$4.99 less than buying them separately
Fabrics tell you how to choose and how to care. Body shape tells you which cuts bring out your silhouette.
The two PDFs arrive by email after checkout.
The Wardrobe Kit
$59.99 three guides$14.98 less than buying them separately
Not sure of your sub-season? The free quiz gives you a first hint, not a verdict.
Not sure of your sub-season yet? The free quiz gives you a first hint.
Who wrote this guide
French color analyst and founder of Ihana. Eight years in sales and marketing management in the cosmetics industry, and trained to analyze every skin tone.
“I see image consulting as a tool for one thing above all: creating harmony between your outfits and your DNA. That way, your image serves your personality and your projects, and not the other way around.”
FAQ
39 A5 pages. One page on reading a label, three pages of care symbols (washing, bleaching, drying, professional cleaning, ironing), one page on the three families of fibers, then 24 fibers, one page each. Each page gives the characteristics, the durability, the environmental impact, whether the material is vegan and how to care for it. The guide ends with tables of 35 fabrics.
By email, as a PDF, after you check out.
It’s a 39-page PDF with A5-size pages (about 5.8 × 8.3 inches), easy to read on a phone. You can print it at home too.
Yes, $19.99. The Style Bundle pairs it with the body shape guide, $39.99 for both guides. The Wardrobe Kit adds the guide of your sub-season, $59.99 for the three guides.
Yes. The guide draws the US system (ASTM D5489, the set the FTC accepts when symbols stand without words) and tells you that clothes made outside North America may use other symbols, for example a number in the tub instead of dots.
On a US label, viscose is labeled “rayon” (“viscose” is also allowed). Modal and lyocell are types of rayon. The guide gives each of them its own page.
No. The care advice in the guide is Lisa’s, sometimes more cautious than a manufacturer’s. When in doubt, the label on your garment wins. The guide helps you read it and understand it.
No. There is no list of brands and no store addresses: the guide is about fabrics, not stores. It teaches you to read a fiber content and to compare two fabrics.
Yes. Every fiber page has an environmental impact line (low, moderate or high, with the reason in a few words) and says whether the material is vegan.
The body shape guide is about cuts: which shapes of clothes bring out your silhouette. The guides by sub-season are about color: your palette, your capsule wardrobe, your makeup. The Fabric Guide is about what your clothes are made of and how to care for them. The three go together.
39 pages, 24 fibers, 35 fabrics. The PDF arrives by email after checkout.
Get the guide · $19.99