Materials: what the fabric in each Deyeek piece is, and what the label must say about it

Four fibres, four jobs

Where the maker states the mix, a Deyeek piece is a blend of four fibres at most: polyester, cotton, viscose or rayon and, on the pieces that need to stretch around a seam of snaps, a little spandex. Nothing exotic, and that is deliberate. A garment that will be worn over a dressing, washed twice a week and closed with one hand needs fabric that behaves the same way every time.

Where the maker states the mix, our page prints it under Fabric, per the maker. Where the description is silent, our page is silent too, and the label sewn into the garment is the authority. That division is the subject of the second half of this page.

Cotton against the skin

Cotton absorbs. That is its virtue next to skin that is healing or sore: it takes moisture off the surface and it does not cling. Where the maker states the mix it is usually the smaller share, 15% to 35%, and that goes for the sleep shorts and the sweatpants too. 18 pages of tear-away shorts are the exception, at 95%.

Its cost is the same absorbency. Cotton holds sweat rather than moving it, it takes longer to dry, and it shrinks in hot water. Read a high cotton number as comfort at rest, and wash it cool.

Polyester where it counts

Polyester does what cotton cannot. It dries fast, it holds its shape after a hundred washes, it does not shrink, and it takes a snap tape without puckering. So the adaptive benches lean on it: a seam of snaps in a fabric that shrinks would pull the snaps out of line within a season.

Its cost is feel. Pure polyester next to the skin can feel warm and slick. So most of the adaptive pieces here are blends, and the maker's descriptions use the word soft so often for the same reason. Where a polyester share is stated it runs from 60% to 99%. The long-sleeve polo is the one place the fibre is the point: the maker calls it quick-dry and rates it UPF 50+, and both words belong to the maker.

Viscose and rayon

Viscose is a kind of rayon, and both are spun from wood pulp. They feel cool and soft, and they hang close to the body the way cotton does. The cost comes in the wash: both lose strength when wet, so a gentle cycle matters more here than on polyester.

The maker names one or the other on 182 pages, always blended with polyester at 19% to 35%. You will find them mostly in the shirts, the port tops and the gowns.

Spandex and the snap seam

A small share of spandex is what lets a snap seam close without pulling. It gives the fabric enough give to come together over a dressing and enough recovery to lie flat again. Spandex hates heat: a hot wash and a hot dryer shorten its life more than anything else you can do to a garment, and the Deyeek care guide says cool and low for that reason.

What the label must say

A garment sold in the United States carries a fibre label because a federal rule says it must, and the rule tells the maker how to write it. The first instruction is about order.

...shall appear in order of predominance by weight with any percentage of fiber or fibers required to be designated as “other fiber” or “other fibers” appearing last.

16 CFR 303.3, read 5 September 2026

Predominance by weight: the biggest share first. So a label reading “60% Cotton, 40% Polyester” is a promise about the majority fibre, and a description that says the same thing in a different order has been written by someone who did not read the label.

The second instruction is about language, and it is short.

All required information shall be set out in the English language.

16 CFR 303.4, read 5 September 2026

The five percent line

Small amounts are treated differently, and the line is drawn at five percent of total fibre weight.

...no fiber present in the amount of less than 5 percent of the total fiber weight shall be designated by its generic name or fiber trademark in disclosing the constituent fibers in required information, but shall be designated as “other fiber.”

16 CFR 303.3(a), read 5 September 2026

This is the sentence that explains the spandex. A piece with three percent spandex can say “other fiber” on its label and nothing more, unless the fibre does a real job at that share, which stretch does. The rule makes that exception in the same paragraph. So a label that says “3% Spandex” is not breaking the rule, and a label that says “other fiber” is not hiding anything.

What this catalogue can show

The label is on the garment. Our pages are built from the maker's descriptions, and those state the fibre mix on 418 of the 1089 pages in the catalogue. The honest inventory, bench by bench:

Where a cell is low, the garment's own label carries the number, and it is the one to read.

Fabric by bench

A short guide to what to expect, bench by bench, from the descriptions we work from.

• Post-surgery shirts and port tops: polyester blends, often with viscose or rayon, so the snap tape holds its line. Soft is the maker's word for the feel.
• Gowns: lighter blends, cut long. Polyester with viscose where stated.
• Adaptive pants: the same blend logic as the shirts. The seam is longer and the fabric has to recover after every opening.
• Sweatpants and shorts: polyester with a quarter to a third cotton where stated. The cotton is the soft side of the mix and the part that shrinks, so wash cool.
• Polos: polyester, for drying speed. The UPF rating is the maker's.

Why a soft claim stays the maker's

Soft, breathable, quick-dry, skin-friendly: none of these words appear in Part 303, because Part 303 is about fibre identity, not feel. There is no federal definition a fabric has to meet before it may be called soft. That does not make the word empty, but it makes it a claim by the maker rather than a measured fact, and our pages print such words under a heading that says whose they are.

The same is true of UPF 50+ on the polo. A UPF figure can be measured, and some makers publish the test. On the polo, UPF 50+ is the maker's own figure.

Sources

• 16 CFR Part 303, Rules and Regulations under the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act, Federal Trade Commission, via eCFR, read 5 September 2026.