Fibre encyclopedia
Viscose
Also called viscose · viskosa · rayon · rayon viskosa · CV · viskosa rayon · viscose rayon · rayon viscose
Cellulose dissolved out of plant pulp and spun again as fibre. It takes in more water than cotton and loses much of its strength while wet.
Class
Regenerated
Comes from
From dissolved plant pulp
Where it comes from
Viscose starts as dissolving pulp, usually from wood. Labelling rules define viscose as regenerated cellulose obtained by the viscose process, which uses carbon disulfide as part of dissolving the pulp. Rayon is the older name for the same thing, and Indonesian labels use both words interchangeably.
How it feels to wear
Air
Air moves through the fibre easily
Water
Takes water into the fibre
Heat
Lets body heat go
Stretch
No stretch of its own
Wear
Wears down sooner under rubbing
Viscose takes water into the fibre, with an agreed moisture allowance of 13 per cent. The regenerated fibre is weaker wet than dry, and the drop is large enough that a wet viscose garment can be pulled out of shape by its own weight. That weakness is the reason so many viscose labels say hand wash or dry clean.
Care
- Hand wash cool, or follow the dry clean line on the label.
- Do not wring. Support the weight when it is wet.
- Dry flat, in shade.
- Iron on the reverse while slightly damp.
Every viscose care instruction traces back to the same property: the fibre is weak while it holds water.
End of life
Recycling route
Chemical recycling
Cellulose from used cloth can be dissolved and spun into new fibre, and that route runs today at small scale on sorted cotton and viscose waste. Mechanical shredding is a poor fit for viscose because the fibre is already short and weak.
In a blend
Cellulose can only be dissolved again if what arrives is cellulose, so a viscose and polyester blend does not enter the route.
Skin notes
Mechanical
The fibre surface is smooth and the diameter is fine, so there is no mechanical prickle route.
Chemical
Viscose is dyed with reactive and direct dyes, and it takes finishes readily because it absorbs. Neither the dye class nor the finish appears on the label.
If your skin reacts to a garment, a dermatologist and patch testing are what can answer it. A label cannot, and neither can this page.
What the label cannot tell you
The label says viscose or rayon. It does not say which plant the pulp came from, which forest, or which process the mill ran.
Sources
- Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 on textile fibre names and related labelling, Annex I. Checked 22 August 2026
- Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011, Annex IX, agreed allowances. Checked 22 August 2026
- European Commission Joint Research Centre, techno-scientific assessment of the management options for used and waste textiles in the European Union, 2023
Written from primary sources and in our own words. Where a figure could not be traced to a source anyone can open, it is not printed here.
Read the label you are holding
The scan surface reads one care label and names which questions it answers and which it leaves out. A passport says for one specific piece what a label cannot: the composition with its percentages, where the cloth came from, who worked on it, how to repair it and where it goes next.