What do the laundry symbols mean?

Laundry symbols, or care symbols, are icons which represent a wide variety of washing, drying and ironing methods, which are commonly found on clothing labels and tags. Their purpose is to instruct consumers on how a particular item of clothing should be cleaned, dried and ironed so as to avoid damage being caused to the fabric.

Because there are a variety of laundry symbols out there, it can get very confusing and it can be difficult to work out what each laundry symbol means without clarification. Luckily we have provided below a picture of the most important European laundry symbols and an explanation of what they represent, so that you are able to easily recognise them the next time you check the label on your clothing items.