GB/T 22700-2016Washed garments (English PDF)

Foreword

This document was issued on 13 December 2016 by the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China, and has been in force since 1 July 2017.

It replaces GB/T 22700-2008.

Classification: ICS 61.020, CCS Y76.

1 Scope

China's national standard for washed garments. Washing is a finishing process applied to the made-up garment rather than to the cloth, and it is what gives denim and casual clothing the look they are bought for: stone washing, enzyme washing, bleaching, sand blasting and the rest, which soften the fabric and produce the faded and worn appearance that would otherwise take years. The process is also where the garment can be damaged, and that is what the standard addresses. Washing removes strength as well as colour, it shrinks the garment unpredictably if the process is not controlled, and it can leave residues of the chemicals used. So the requirements cover the dimensional change, the tensile and seam strength that remain after treatment, the colour fastness of a finish that was deliberately made unstable, and the appearance consistency between garments in the same batch - which for a product sold as individually distressed is a harder target than it sounds.

About this edition

GB/T 22700-2016 is the current edition. It was issued on 13 December 2016 and has been in force since 1 July 2017, replacing GB/T 22700-2008.

GB/T 22700-2008 has been superseded: a specification that still cites it is citing a withdrawn edition.

The interval between issue and effect is the transition period. It exists so that producers, laboratories and buyers can requalify products, revise procedures and use up documentation before the new text becomes the one that applies. The date on this page is the official one from the record of the Standardization Administration.

Classification and status

GB/T 22700-2016 is classified under ICS 61.020, in the field of clothing industry. ICS is the International Classification for Standards, the same scheme used by ISO and by the national bodies of most countries, which is what allows a Chinese standard to be placed beside its foreign counterparts on subject rather than on number.

Its Chinese Standard Classification code is CCS Y76. CCS is the domestic scheme, a letter for the sector and two digits for the subject within it, and it is the code by which the standard is filed and searched in China.

The GB/T prefix marks a recommended national standard. It is not, in itself, law: it becomes binding when a contract names it, when a regulation or a mandatory standard refers to it, or when a producer declares conformity with it. In practice that covers most of the cases in which it will be read - a purchase specification, an inspection agreement or a certification scheme.

How a Chinese national standard is set out

Chinese national standards are drafted to the rules of GB/T 1.1, which fixes the order in which a standard is set out. The document opens with a foreword recording the issuing bodies, the relationship to any previous edition and the technical committee responsible for it. Clause 1 is the scope. Clause 2 lists the normative references - the other standards that have to be applied together with this one, and without which its requirements cannot be met. Clause 3 gives the terms and definitions. The technical clauses follow: the requirements themselves, the test or measurement methods by which conformity is established, the inspection rules that say how a lot is sampled and judged, and, for a product standard, the provisions on marking, packaging, transport and storage. Annexes, normative or informative, come last.

GB/T 22700-2016 runs to 22 pages in the English translation. What is delivered is the complete document in that order: every clause, every table, every figure and every annex of the Chinese original, with the same numbering, so that a reference to a clause number in a contract or a test report points to the same place in both languages.