Product Care
All of Mura Collective's products are handcrafted using the finest natural fabrics. Creating each product is a process rooted in the crafts-based traditions of hand-spinning, dying, weaving, wood block printing and embroidery, each with its own regional style. We use natural dyes, minimizing our impact on the environment while striving for the best colour properties. For our bleaching process we use only hydrogen peroxide which is totally biodegradable.
Fabric Care
Caring for your Mura products is generally trouble free. In fact, our products are so well constructed that it is hard to wear them out. Consider that the oldest surviving piece of cotton fabric was handwoven 3,000 years ago in India, the birthplace of cotton. We offer the following information and care suggestions which will help you extend the life of your Mura products even further.
See our fabric care guidelines below for handwoven silk and cotton.
Fabric Care For Handwoven Silk
Properties
Select villages in India have been processing the silk threads from “silkworms” or caterpillars for 3,000 years. The various fibre and fabric properties depend on the type of worm or moth, the food that it eats and the way in which the fibres are processed. Mura uses several varieties of silk, such as tussar and matka, which are indigenous to India and processed and spun by hand without the use of harsh chemicals. For example, tussar silk is a wild silk characterized by an irregular yarn with thick and thin portions, creating a “slubby” or highly textured fabric. The lustre and sheen varies from type of silk as well as the texture and the softness of the handle. Overall, silk is the strongest natural fiber, has a beautiful drape and is naturally crease resistant. The drawback of silk is that it loses its strength when wet and therefore needs to be treated gently during laundering.
Laundering
Please refer to the specific care instructions on the garment
Dry clean only.
Ironing
Use a warm iron if needed.
Fabric Care For Handwoven Cotton
Properties
Most of Mura's clothing and home furnishings is 100% pure cotton. Handwoven cotton fabric has the added value of allowing more air penetration and is therefore cooler, softer, more absorbent and breathes better than highly uniform, compacted machine made cotton fabric. This added breathability means you will stay cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Handwoven cotton fabric also has a textural beauty and visible character which is not present in machine made fabric. Cotton is a very strong fibre, even when wet, so it holds up very well to repeated laundering.
Shrinkage
During the dyeing and printing processes, the yarn and then the fabric is repeatedly washed. This helps to ensure full dye penetration, removes any residual surface dye and also reduces shrinkage in the final tailored product. Depending on how you care for the product, additional shrinkage ranges from 5-7% for printed fabrics and 7-10% for woven products.
Laundering
Please refer to the specific care instructions on the garment. Because cotton is so strong when wet, caring for cotton is very simple and the more you wash it, the softer and more absorbent it becomes. The following tips will help you extend the life of the product.
- Machine wash cold on gentle cycle.
- Wash items with like colors and turn your clothes inside out, especially dark colors.
- Some colours may require to be washed separately the first few times.
- Keep your zippers and hooks closed to avoid snagging other items in the wash.
- If you choose to use bleach, use non-chlorine bleach which is less harsh on your fabrics and on the environment.
- Tumble dry low heat. Remove items promptly from dryer, preferably when still damp.
Ironing
Press with a warm to hot iron while damp. If the item has dried, use a spray bottle to dampen the fabric.