Handle With Care

Retro ad found at Planet Oddity

This is why it’s always important to read the care instructions.

Emma Barnett happened upon a particularly egregious one while “attempting to tidy up” at home. The care label in her boyfriend’s pants included the usual “machine wash warm,” blah, blah blah instructions and an alternative: “Or give it to your woman. It’s her job.”

The pants came from discount e-tailer Madhouse. Barnett is the digital media editor of London newspaper The Telegraph.

Oof. Tough break, Madhouse.

The reporter snapped a photo of the label and posted it to Twitter. Soon Madhouse was responding also via Twitter and Facebook that it did not make the pants and “the care instructions were not proofed by our #Madhouse buyers”… “who normally concern themselves with quality, style and price of the products they order.”

Barnett wrote about it in The Telegraph. The story then jumped the pond, where Salon picked it up. And that’s where I found it.

I’ve yet to figure out who actually made the pants. And the comment section on Barnett’s column is hair-raising, to say the least.

But the story is a warning to all retailers (and importers and manufacturers with snarky staffers) Read the care label with care. Or risk social (network) shame.

Retro ad found at Planet Oddity

This is why it’s always important to read the care instructions.

Emma Barnett happened upon a particularly egregious one while “attempting to tidy up” at home. The care label in her boyfriend’s pants included the usual “machine wash warm,” blah, blah blah instructions and an alternative: “Or give it to your woman. It’s her job.”

The pants came from discount e-tailer Madhouse. Barnett is the digital media editor of London newspaper The Telegraph.

Oof. Tough break, Madhouse.

The reporter snapped a photo of the label and posted it to Twitter. Soon Madhouse was responding also via Twitter and Facebook that it did not make the pants and “the care instructions were not proofed by our #Madhouse buyers”… “who normally concern themselves with quality, style and price of the products they order.”

Barnett wrote about it in The Telegraph. The story then jumped the pond, where Salon picked it up. And that’s where I found it.

I’ve yet to figure out who actually made the pants. And the comment section on Barnett’s column is hair-raising, to say the least.

But the story is a warning to all retailers (and importers and manufacturers with snarky staffers) Read the care label with care. Or risk social (network) shame.

Reporter Emma Barnett spotted this label and shared it via Twitter