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What’s This About:
The care label on the garment decides, and everything on this page comes after reading all of it.
A care label is several separate instructions, not one verdict: the washtub says whether and how it may be washed, the circle says what a professional cleaner may do with it, and the square says how it may be dried.
A sweater whose washtub allows hand or machine washing can be washed at home in cold water with a wool detergent, dosed as that detergent’s own bottle instructs.
A crossed-out washtub means do not wash it, and the circle then tells you whether a professional cleaner can.
Read the drying symbol separately: drying flat is the conservative default for knitwear, and it is what this page recommends, but if the label carries a tumble-dry symbol the maker is permitting a tumble dryer on the setting that symbol shows.
For the ones you can wash: submerge, press gently, soak for the time the detergent states, rinse, press the water out without wringing, roll in a towel and dry flat in its own shape, then comb off the pills rather than pulling them and store the sweater folded rather than hung.
This guide answers the questions men ask over a basin with a sweater in one hand, such as:
– How do I read the care label, and when does it rule out washing at home?
– What water temperature and what detergent?
– Can it go in the washing machine, and on which cycle?
– How do I dry it without stretching it, and how do I get the pills off?
– How often should I wash it, and how do I store it against moths?
and many more!
The hand wash is seven steps, the machine version is three, and the storage rules are at the end.
Key Points:
01The label comes first, and it is four instructions rather than one: the washtub for washing, the triangle for bleach, the square for drying, the circle for professional cleaning. A crossed-out washtub rules out washing and says nothing about dry cleaning, which the circle governs. Nothing below overrides the symbols on the garment.
02Cold water and a wool detergent, dosed as its bottle says: Woolmark’s hand-wash range is 30C to a maximum of 40C, and a biological detergent is the one to avoid, because its enzymes attack the protein the fibre is made of.
03Never wring and never hang a wet sweater: press the water out, roll it in a towel, then dry it flat in its own shape, away from radiators and sunlight. Drying flat is the conservative default and the one this page recommends; a tumble dryer is only for a garment whose label carries a tumble-dry symbol, at the setting that symbol shows.
04Wash less than you think: about every five wears for a sweater worn over a shirt, because over-washing is what makes cashmere pill.
05Fold, do not hang: a hanger stretches the shoulders out of a knit permanently, and moths go for stored knitwear that was put away dirty.
The answer
The short answer
Whether you can wash a sweater at home is a question about that sweater, and the answer is printed inside it.
Woolmark, the wool industry’s own authority, makes the label controlling: “always check your garment’s care labels and instructions to help preserve the life-span of your product”. Its reading of the symbols is the one to use. A machine-wash symbol at 30C or 40C means “Machine-washable wool” on a wool or delicates cycle with the drum no more than a third full. A hand-wash symbol means “Hand wash at a water temperature between 30C and a maximum of 40C” with a fine wool detergent, letting the garment float, agitating carefully “without rubbing or wringing”, then rinsing thoroughly. A do-not-wash symbol is absolute on the washing question: “Articles marked with a Do Not Wash claim must not be washed”, which Woolmark explains covers garments that “may be sensitive to any kind of wet treatment or be unsuitable for washing in a domestic washing machine because of their size”. It is a washing instruction and not a cleaning verdict: what a professional cleaner may do is on the circle. And on the dry-clean-only case, Woolmark is explicit: a wool garment whose label says dry clean only “should be taken to a professional dry cleaner to ensure the superior quality of your clothing is maintained upon cleaning”.
So this page is for the sweaters whose labels permit washing, which is most plain knitwear, and not for the ones whose labels do not.
For those, The Laundress, a detergent maker, sets the method for its own product: add a wool and cashmere shampoo “to a tub or sink filled with cool water”, one “specially formulated without enzymes”, then submerge the sweater and “gently agitate” it “to evenly distribute soap and water”, with a soak of “up to 30 minutes”, then rinse under cool water until the water “is no longer soapy”, with the instruction “Do not wring. Instead, gently press the water out.” It also argues that home washing treats the fibre better than dry cleaning, which can “strip fibers of their natural oils”, a maker’s view of its own category rather than a reason to override a label.
Reader’s Digest’s guide, which quotes three specialists, gives a different set of numbers for a different routine: “cold water to a basin at 86 degrees or less”, “1 to 2 capfuls of cashmere-friendly shampoo”, and a soak of “approximately 1 minute”, because a longer one “could cause the sweater’s fibers to expand, altering its shape”. Jennifer Ahoni, Tide’s principal scientist, gives the reason for the temperature: “if the water is too hot, it will damage the cashmere fibers.”
The two soak times, one minute and up to thirty, are not reconcilable from what either source says, and neither explains the difference. Follow the dose and the soak time printed on the detergent you are actually using, and if it gives none, keep the soak short.
On frequency, the same guide quotes Catherine Morrissey of White and Warren recommending a wash “after about five wears”, with the note that a cashmere sweater cannot be washed too seldom, against Hao Rong of State Cashmere, who warns that “over-washing cashmere contributes to excessive pilling”.
The rest of this page is the hand wash step by step, the machine alternative, drying, pilling, stains, storage, and the cases where the dry cleaner is the right answer.
The method
How to hand wash a cashmere or wool sweater
Step one: read the whole care label, symbol by symbol. A hand-wash or machine-wash-wool washtub means this method is the intended one. A crossed-out washtub means do not wash it at home by any method on this page; check the circle on the same label, because a garment that must not be washed is often still cleanable professionally. A circle, with or without a letter, is the professional-cleaning instruction and tells a cleaner which solvent to use; on its own it does not forbid washing, and a crossed-out circle means the garment must not be dry cleaned at all. Where the washtub and the circle disagree with something on this page, the label wins.
If the label has been cut out, do not try to work it out from the garment. A test on a hidden seam shows you whether a small area discolours; it tells you nothing about whether the whole knit will shrink or felt, since that depends on the fibre, the knit structure and the agitation the garment gets, none of which a seam test reproduces. Ask the maker, who will usually answer for a garment they still sell, or take it to a cleaner and let them decide.
Step two: fill a clean basin or sink with cold water, at 30C or 86F or below, and add the wool detergent at the dose its own bottle gives for that volume of water; doses differ by several times between concentrated and dilute products, so the bottle decides rather than a capful. Stir it through the water before the sweater goes in.
Step three: submerge the sweater and press it gently under the water two or three times so the detergent reaches the whole knit; do not rub, twist or scrub, which is what felts wool.
Step four: leave it for the time your detergent states. Published advice ranges from about a minute to thirty, the sources disagree, and neither explains why; a short soak is the safer default when the bottle is silent.
Step five: drain the water and rinse with fresh cold water, pressing the sweater gently, until the water runs clear with no suds; The Laundress’s instruction is to run cool water through the sweater until the rinse water “is no longer soapy”.
Step six: press the water out with flat hands against the side of the basin, then lift the sweater with both hands supporting it, so its own weight does not stretch it; never wring or twist.
Step seven: lay the sweater on a dry towel, roll the towel up from one end with the sweater inside, and press along the roll to take out most of the water; then unroll and dry it flat, which is the next section.
The machine
Washing wool in the machine, and when not to
A machine with a wool or hand-wash cycle can wash a sweater whose label carries the machine-wash-wool symbol, and The Laundress’s version is to turn the sweater inside out, put it in a mesh washing bag, and run the “woolens or delicate cycle” with cold water and a low spin.
The three settings that matter: cold water, the wool or delicate cycle, and the lowest spin the machine offers; a high spin pulls a knit out of shape, and heat is the main cause of shrinkage. Woolmark’s condition for machine washing is a garment carrying the machine-wash-wool symbol, on a wool or delicates cycle, with the drum no more than a third full; a wool cycle does not make a hand-wash-only or dry-clean-only sweater machine-safe.
Wash knitwear with knitwear, not with shirts and trousers, whose buttons and zips abrade the surface and cause pilling.
Do not machine wash: anything without a machine-wash-wool symbol, anything loosely knitted or beaded, or a sweater that has already stretched, which needs the controlled hand wash instead.
Do not tumble dry unless the label says you may. Heat and tumbling together are what felt and shrink wool, and the damage cannot be reversed, which is why drying flat is the default for knitwear and the method this page gives. Some wool garments are finished and labelled for a mild tumble dry, and Woolmark’s instruction where that is permitted is to “Select a mild process with reduced thermal action temperature and short duration of treatment”; a crossed-out tumble-dry symbol, in its words, means the garment “must not be places in a clothes dryer”. Read the square on your own label rather than applying a blanket rule.
Drying
How to dry it without losing the shape
Dry flat: The Laundress’s instruction is to lay the sweater flat “in their natural shape on a drying rack or clean towel”, avoiding “direct sunlight and heat sources”, and its rule is absolute: “Never hang wet wool.”
Reshape it while it is damp: lay the sweater out, square the shoulders, straighten the sleeves alongside the body, and pat the hem and cuffs back to their own width, so it dries in the shape you set.
Give it a day: Reader’s Digest’s estimate is “up to 24 hours” to dry through, and turning the sweater over halfway speeds it up; a radiator or a hairdryer dries the outside, shrinks the fibre and leaves the inside wet.
A drying rack with a mesh shelf is better than a towel on the floor, because the air reaches both sides, but a towel changed once works.
Pilling
Pills, fuzz and the brush
Pills are short broken fibres that have tangled at points of friction, under the arms, at the cuffs and where a bag strap sits; they are a property of the yarn rather than a sign of poor quality, and every cashmere sweater produces some in its first season.
Remove them with a sweater comb or a battery-powered fabric shaver, laying the sweater flat and working in one direction with light passes; The Laundress’s instruction is to “gently depill and lift fuzz from cashmere and wool knits with a few passes of the Sweater Comb”.
Never pull a pill off with your fingers, which takes a length of yarn with it and eventually opens a hole.
Between wears, a garment brush lifts “lint, fuzz, and dust” from the surface, in The Laundress’s words, and airing a sweater overnight on a flat surface does most of what a wash would do.
Less washing, less pilling: the friction of washing is itself a cause, which is the reason for the five-wear interval rather than a weekly one.
Storage
Storing knitwear, and keeping moths out
Fold, never hang: The Laundress’s rule is to “always store knits folded to prevent stretching”, because a hanger puts the whole weight of a knit on two points and leaves permanent shoulder bumps.
Clean before storing: moth larvae eat the traces of skin, sweat and food in worn wool rather than the wool alone, and The Laundress’s instruction is to clean a sweater before it is put away.
Breathable storage: a cotton or canvas bag with a zip, or a cotton dust bag inside a box, rather than a plastic bag or a vacuum bag, both of which trap moisture and crush the loft out of the knit.
Moth repellents: cedar blocks or rings and lavender sachets, refreshed each season (cedar is sanded lightly to bring the oil back), which Reader’s Digest lists as the storage method alongside “an airtight bin”.
Check stored knitwear in midwinter and midsummer; a moth problem found early is a wash and a freeze, and one found late is a hole.
Stains
Spills, sweat and the dry cleaner
Act cold and fast: blot a spill with a dry cloth, then a cloth dampened with cold water, from the outside of the mark inwards; heat and rubbing set a stain into wool.
Deodorant and sweat marks at the underarm are washed out with a cold soak and a wool detergent worked in gently with the fingers, and they are the usual reason a sweater needs washing before five wears.
The dry cleaner is right for: a tailored wool jacket or coat with a lining and structure, a wool suit, anything with a stain you cannot identify, and a beaded or embellished knit; ask for it to be cleaned rather than pressed flat, and take the plastic bag off as soon as it comes home.
For the knitwear itself, our guides to cashmere sweaters and to knitwear cover what to buy and how to wear it.
Questions readers ask
Common questions
Does 100% cashmere shrink?
Heat and agitation are what felt and shrink it, so a hot wash, or a tumble dry the label does not permit, will, and irreversibly. Cold water, a wool detergent and flat drying make shrinkage much less likely rather than impossible: agitation, wringing and hanging a wet sweater can still distort it, which is why the method above avoids all three.
Is it better to hand wash or dry clean cashmere?
Whichever the label allows. Where the washtub permits washing, hand washing is cheaper and, in The Laundress’s view as a detergent maker, kinder to the fibre than repeated solvent cleaning. Where the label rules washing out, Woolmark’s instruction is to use a professional dry cleaner, and the circle on the label tells the cleaner which process to use.
What detergent should I use on cashmere?
A wool and cashmere detergent formulated without enzymes, at the dose on its own bottle; never a biological detergent, whose enzymes break down protein fibres, and never fabric softener, which coats the fibre and flattens it.
Can I put a cashmere sweater in the washing machine?
Only if the label carries the machine-wash-wool symbol; then on a wool or delicate cycle, in cold water, at the lowest spin, inside out and inside a mesh bag, with the drum no more than a third full. A hand-wash-only or dry-clean-only sweater is not made machine-safe by the wool cycle.
How often should I wash a cashmere sweater?
About every five wears when it is worn over a shirt, sooner if it is worn against the skin or marked; over-washing is the main cause of pilling.
Sources checked for this article (13 September 2026)
Mandy Meyer’s focus at The VOU is men’s body-shape styling, garment fit and outfit proportions. Her coverage addresses the practical questions behind a wardrobe choice: how a jacket sits across the shoulders, how trousers fall and how different cuts change the silhouette a wearer wants to create.
Her subject areas include the triangle, inverted triangle, rectangle, oval, trapezoid, hourglass and diamond labels used in body-shape styling. These provide starting references for comparing visible proportions; they do not capture every body or prescribe one correct way to dress. The focus connects those observations with garment shape, construction, length and the relationship between the upper and lower parts of an outfit.
Mandy’s editorial coverage combines visual comparisons with fit checks for comfort and movement. Readers can consider whether a cut gives them the room they need, where clothing pulls or gathers and which changes might support their preferred look. The aim is to make menswear choices more understandable while keeping personal preferences and the wearer’s own styling goals central.
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