'Sexist' clothing company sells cardigans with label which says: 'Get your mum to wash it - it's her job'

An Italian clothing firm has been branded ‘sexist’ after giving out cardigans with washing instructions telling customers to get their mums to do it.

The Shoeshine clothing brand in northern Italy gave out items with normal washing instructions including 'Machine wash cold' and 'Do not dry clean’.

But tagged on the end of their labels is a message which reads: ‘Or give it to your mum, it’s her job'.

A local Italian MP has since claimed the clothing label ‘perpetuates a sexist message about mothers and women’ and has filed a complaint against them.

Federica Mazzoni, 28, who works at the equality commission in the region of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy was incensed when a friend bought a cardigan for her son.

She said: ‘Obviously it wasn’t enough for the company to provide all the necessary useful information, it felt the need to have its say, by perpetuating a sexist message about mothers and women, which is also insulting for men and fathers.

'It suggests women have no other skills than staying at home and that of turning a knob to 30.

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'In a mirror image, it insults men as if they were not capable of doing a simple wash. Anyway, the cardigan is still in the wash basket.'

Mazzoni was joined in her criticism by pal Erica Zambonelli who posted: 'If one did not see it, one would not believe it. Crazy.'

But Lorenzo Genovesi posted: 'It could be morally harmful for kids. Although I wonder how many youngsters will look at the label, as they probably leave it to their mums.'

The company has yet to comment.