When a name comes back
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The proviso is the interesting half of the section
Nothing in the section shall be construed as prohibiting the disclosure of any fiber present in a textile fiber product which has a clearly established and definite functional significance when present in the amount contained in such product.
Three qualifiers sit on the word significance
Clearly established, definite, and when present in the amount contained. The third is the one doing the real work: a fiber that would be functional at ten percent is not automatically functional at two.
And clearly established points outward
Established implies established somewhere other than in the labeling party’s own judgment. The rule does not say where, but it is not asking for an opinion.
The example is one line long and it is spandex
96 percent Acetate 4 percent Spandex. Four percent of elastane changes how a fabric stretches and recovers, which is a function nobody argues about.
A decorative fiber is the natural contrast
Being visible is not a function in the sense the proviso uses. The decoration does not change how the garment behaves, which is why the trim provisions handle it rather than this one.
So the part splits decorative and functional at the same threshold
Below five percent by weight, a functional fiber may be named and a decorative one may not. The number is identical and the treatment is not.
There is also a route for a product that makes no claim at all
The coverage section provides that exclusions do not apply if any representations as to fiber content are made without a full and complete disclosure, or if any false, deceptive or misleading representations are made as to fiber content.
Which is the usual shape of a disclosure rule
Say nothing and the exclusion may hold. Say something partial and the exclusion falls away and the full requirement arrives. The silence is permitted; the half statement is not.
And one exclusion in that list was written for a craft
Looper clips intended for handicraft purposes are excluded by name, alongside belts, suspenders, arm bands, permanently knotted neckties, garters, book cloth, artists’ canvases, tapestry cloth and shoe laces. A federal exclusion drafted around a handicraft material is rare enough to note.