Fabric content label requirements for US apparel brands
A US fabric content label gives fiber names and percentages. Check the below-5% rule, blend tolerance, business identity, origin and label placement.
For covered US textile products, a fabric content label states generic fiber names and percentages by weight, generally in descending order. Covered apparel also needs country of origin and a qualifying business name or FTC registered identification number (RN). Those details need not all appear on one label. 16 CFR 303.16 and 303.15 set out these requirements.
This guide covers ordinary apparel subject to the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act. Wool products need separate treatment, explained below. Check the composition, claims and label layout before approving artwork for print.
Choose generic fiber names and percentages
For a fiber content label, identify each fiber making up 5% or more of total fiber weight. List the named fibers in descending order by weight. Put any required “other fiber” or “other fibers” entry last. A fiber at exactly 5% meets the naming threshold. See sections 303.6 and 303.16.
Use the required generic name rather than a supplier's marketing term. Section 303.7 contains manufactured-fiber names and definitions. It also incorporates the specified ISO 2076:2013(E) edition. Don't substitute a newer ISO edition without checking the rule.
A fiber trademark can accompany its generic name, but cannot replace it. The generic name must sit immediately alongside the trademark, with equal lettering size and conspicuousness. All fiber-content information must also be equally sized and conspicuous. These requirements come from section 303.17 and section 303.16.
Account for fibers below 5%
A small percentage doesn't simply disappear from fabric composition labels. Ordinarily, a fiber below 5% is declared as “other fiber,” with its percentage. Two or more such fibers are grouped as “other fibers,” with their combined percentage. Section 303.3 provides the rule and its functional-significance exception.
That exception allows a fiber's name where it has a clearly established and definite functional significance at the amount present. The regulation gives this example:
96 percent Acetate 4 percent Spandex
This is a regulatory example, not a label template for an untested garment. Check the composition and the basis for naming a below-5% fiber before using similar wording. Section 303.3 does not give blanket permission to name every trace fiber.
Ornamentation has a separate exception. Qualifying fiber ornamentation of no more than 5% can be excluded with an appropriate “Exclusive of Ornamentation” statement. Don't treat all trim as excluded under this rule. See section 303.26.
Wool changes the analysis. For products subject to the Wool Act, wool and recycled wool percentages must always be stated, even below 5%. Those products are excluded from Part 303. Use the Wool Rule, rather than applying every Textile Rule mechanically. The exclusion appears in section 303.2.
Keep blend tolerance separate from “100%” claims
For products containing more than one fiber, the Textile Rule allows a three-percentage-point tolerance for each fiber's actual percentage. Permissive ornamentation is excluded from this calculation. The official example allows a declared 40% fiber to measure between 37% and 43%. This means three points of total fiber weight, not 3% of the declared figure. See section 303.43(a).
Above that tolerance, the product is misbranded unless the charged person proves the entire deviation resulted from unavoidable manufacturing variations despite due care. That evidentiary condition appears in paragraph (b).
The tolerance does not apply to a claim that a product is wholly one fiber. “100% cotton” therefore does not automatically allow 3% polyester. Section 303.43 makes this distinction explicit.
“100%” and “All” claims can account for qualifying excluded ornamentation, decoration, elastic or trimming, with the necessary qualifications. For example, section 303.27 includes “All Rayon, Exclusive of Ornamentation.” Check the exclusion before copying that wording. Do not apply the Part 303 tolerance to wool products.
Add business identity and country of origin
A qualifying business name or FTC RN satisfies the identity requirement. Both aren't mandatory. An arbitrary brand name isn't automatically enough: check the business-name and qualifying house-mark provisions in section 303.19.
Country of origin needs its own assessment. Imported products identify the country of processing or manufacture under CBP-administered origin rules. US manufacture using imported materials must disclose that fact. “Made in USA of imported fabric” is one example in section 303.33. Don't use it without checking the garment's actual manufacturing history.
Check placement and the care-label standard
For a textile product with a neck, the country-of-origin label belongs at the inside center neck, midway between the shoulder seams, or close to another label there. Origin must appear on the front of its label. Fiber content and business identity may appear there or on another conspicuous, readily accessible label. Other required information may appear on the reverse if it remains conspicuous and readily accessible. See section 303.15.
Content labels need secure attachment and enough durability to remain attached through distribution and sale until delivery to the ultimate consumer. The Textile Rule does not require every content label to be sewn in or last the garment's useful life. Section 303.15 sets that attachment standard.
Care and content labels follow different rules. Care labels need permanent attachment and legibility during the product's useful life. If packaging, folding or display hides them at sale, care information must also appear on an outside package label or attached hangtag. See section 423.1 and section 423.6.
Fiber content, identity and care information may share a label when all applicable requirements are met. Section 303.16 permits combining information. The origin-placement rules in section 303.15 still apply.
Review the artwork before printing
Check these items against the rules above:
- Confirm composition and generic fiber names.
- Account for below-5% fibers and any claimed exclusions.
- Review “100%” wording separately from blend tolerances.
- Add a qualifying business name or RN and assessed country of origin.
- Check origin placement, lettering and attachment.
- Review care instructions as a separate obligation.
RegAffairs AI has a citation-backed answer on fabric content labels.