How to Wash a Festival Cloak, Crushed Velvet and Fleece After the Dust Settles

You're home. The car is unpacked except for one duffel, and when you drop it in the hallway it lets out a soft sigh and a fine gray cloud drifts up into the lamplight, as if the playa hitched a ride back with you.

Inside is the whole week. Your cloak, still holding the shape of your shoulders from the sunrise set. The crushed velvet hoodie that caught every laser at the bass stage. The joggers you lived in from the first night to Exodus. The hooded blanket that smells faintly of camp coffee and the burn barrel.

Every one of them carries a souvenir in its seams. Knowing how to wash a festival cloak, a velvet hoodie and a fleece wearable blanket turns laundry day into the last ritual of the festival, the moment the art comes back clean and bright and ready for the next one.

We're Magus and Lylyth Fawn, the visionary artists behind Magus Fawn, and every piece we make shares one care label: machine wash cold with like colors, no bleach, tumble dry low (hang dry is best), don't iron, don't dry clean. This guide is the craft around those five lines, dust first, then fabric by fabric.

How do you get playa dust out of clothes?

Start dry and outdoors. Shake each garment hard, turn every pocket inside out and brush off whatever clings before anything touches water, because dust shakes out far more easily than mud. Then wash it the way the Magus Fawn care label says. Many burners also add white vinegar to the rinse, a community habit rather than official care advice.

Burning Man's own Survival Guide describes the desert floor of Black Rock City as "hardpan alkali", and the same guide warns that dust storms can roll in as instant whiteouts. That powder is fine enough to settle into the pile of velvet and the loft of fleece, and regional burns and dusty camping festivals send you home with their own version.

The general routine veterans use before the washing machine gets involved:

1. Shake it outside. Do it on the porch, the driveway or the campsite on Exodus morning, standing upwind so the cloud drifts away from you.
2. Keep it dry until it's clean. Dust brushes off. Dust plus water turns into a paste that settles deeper, so let anything damp dry fully before you shake it.
3. Turn out every pocket. Pockets are dust reservoirs. Flip them inside out and tap them empty.
4. Brush what clings. A soft clothes brush or a lint roller lifts the last film from faux fur, velvet and fleece.
5. Give the machine a rinse. After a very dusty load, many burners run an empty rinse cycle so the next load starts fresh.

The vinegar rinse burners swear by

Burning Man's Health page treats playa foot, the skin's reaction to the alkali conditions, with a daily foot soak of four parts water to one part vinegar. Plenty of burners borrow the same logic for laundry: vinegar is a mild acid, the dust is alkaline, so a splash of plain white vinegar goes into the rinse. It's common burner practice, not a Magus Fawn care instruction, so treat it as optional. If you try it, keep it to the rinse and never in a load with bleach (our care label skips bleach anyway).

How to wash a festival cloak

Machine wash a Magus Fawn festival cloak cold with like colors and no bleach, then hang it to dry, or tumble dry low when you're short on time. Skip the iron and skip the dry cleaner. Before it goes in, empty all four pockets and close the double front zipper, because that's where the playa likes to hide.

Our zipper cloaks have a micro-mink poly outer and an ultra-soft microfiber fleece lining in black or white faux fur, at a listed fabric weight of 200 g/m². The four pockets matter on laundry day: two deep side pockets, plus two interior stash pockets, one of them zippered. Check every one. Earplugs, kandi and a surprising amount of desert tend to live in there.

Two general laundry habits help: a roomy load, so a garment this big can move, and a closed zipper, so the teeth don't catch anything else in the drum. For hang drying, a sturdy hanger or a shower rod works, hood open so air reaches the lining.

The routine stays this simple for a reason. Every Magus Fawn garment is dye-sublimated, so the ink becomes part of the fiber instead of sitting on top of it. The colors won't fade and the image won't crack, ever. You're caring for the fabric. The art takes care of itself.

The Golden Scarab men's festival cloak ($250, unisex fit, XS–5XL) is black flecked with gold, with a winged scarab carrying a rosy sun disc high between the shoulders. In Egyptian myth the scarab Khepri rolls the sun into the sky every morning, which makes it the right cloak for anyone who'll be back out there at dawn (read the story behind it: The Beetle Who Rolls the Sun). A black outer shows off playa dust like a chalkboard, so this is the cloak that teaches you the shake-out routine fastest.

How to wash crushed velvet

Wash a Magus Fawn crushed velvet hoodie cold with like colors and no bleach, then hang it to dry, or tumble dry low if you need it by tonight. Never iron it and never dry clean it. The crushed pile is the whole light show, so the gentlest routine keeps that texture catching every beam on the dance floor.

Our crushed velvet is 95% polyester and 5% spandex, at a listed fabric weight of 240 g/m², and its crushed surface scatters stage light into hundreds of glints.

General velvet wisdom adds a few habits worth keeping:

• Turn it inside out before washing to cut down on rubbing against the velvet face.
• Wash it with soft company. Keep velvet away from hook-and-loop straps, heavy zippers and rough denim.
• Let gravity do the pressing. Shake the hoodie out while it's still slightly damp and hang it. Wrinkles relax as it dries, no iron needed.
• Brush, don't scrub. A soft brush lifts dust from the pile without flattening it.

The Void Mandala crushed velvet hoodie ($100, S–2XL) stacks monochrome mandalas in silver, smoke and charcoal, like coins from a temple at the bottom of the sea, and on velvet every one of them catches the light at a different angle (read the story behind it: Same Channel). The women's crushed velvet crop hoodie, tees and polos follow exactly the same routine.

How to wash fleece joggers

Magus Fawn joggers wash like everything else we make: machine wash cold with like colors, no bleach, tumble dry low or hang dry, no iron, no dry cleaning. The brushed vegan fleece inside is the cozy part, so general laundry wisdom says to keep joggers out of loads with heavy zippers and rough fabrics that rub against it.

Our joggers are 96% recycled polyester and 4% elastane at a listed fabric weight of 308 g/m², with a cotton-feel face outside and brushed vegan fleece inside. They have cuffed legs, side pockets and an elastic waist with a drawstring.

Empty the side pockets first (lip balm in a dryer is a story nobody tells twice), tie the drawstring in a loose bow so it stays in the waistband, and drape them over a rack to hang dry.

The Chakra Mandala joggers ($100; $105 in 2XL, $108 in 3XL) run rainbow mandalas in green, gold, magenta and blue from hip to cuff, every color of the chakra ladder in one pair (read the story behind the design: What the Painter Saw). They run slim, XS–3XL, so size up one or two for a looser fit.

Can you put a hooded blanket in the washing machine?

Yes. A Magus Fawn hooded blanket goes in the machine like the rest of our clothes: cold water, like colors, no bleach, then tumble dry low or hang dry, which is best. It's an oversized one-size piece, so give it a roomy load and plenty of time to dry all the way through before you fold it.

Our hooded blankets are 100% poly fleece at a listed fabric weight of 300 g/m², cut as one oversized size (4XL) with a cat-ear hood, a front quarter zip and an oversized front pocket. That pocket is the first stop on laundry day, because it holds everything: a headlamp, a granola bar, three bottle caps you meant to pack out.

General tips for a wearable blanket this big:

• Wash it on its own or with a small load so it has room to tumble.
• Close the quarter zip and empty that front pocket first.
• Hang it wide. Two chair backs or a drying rack let air reach the whole thing.
• Pinch the ears back into shape while it's still damp, so the cat-ear hood dries proud.

The Shroom Flower of Life Pastel hooded blanket with ears ($150, one size) is our Shroom Flower of Life design in sherbet: pastel lavender, pink, mint and lemon swirling around a central mandala, the softest colors we print. It's made for the camp chair, the car ride home and the laundry-day couch.

How do you keep a cotton hoodie from shrinking?

You plan for it more than you prevent it. Magus Fawn's 100% cotton hoodies and kids' cotton sweatpants list 3–5% shrinkage after the first wash, even washed cold and air dried. Pick your size with that in mind, keep washing cold and hang dry after that, and you'll know exactly where the fit lands.

Our cotton hoodies are 310 g/m² cotton, dye-sublimated edge to edge through a new cotton process from our cut-and-sew partners, in sizes XS–6XL. The kids' cotton sweatpants share the same 310 g/m² cotton and the same 3–5% note.

A few practical moves:

• Between sizes? Size up. That small first-wash shrink brings it right back toward your size.
• Layering underneath? Our sizing advice for outerwear like cloaks and hoodies is to size up, "sometimes even 2 sizes up to fit extra layers under."
• Hang dry whenever you can. General laundry wisdom says heat is what cotton reacts to, which is why our label calls hang drying best.

Browse the prints in cotton hoodies.

Festival clothing care at a glance

Every Magus Fawn garment shares the same care label. What changes from fabric to fabric is what to check before the wash.

The after-festival laundry ritual

Here's the order we'd follow the day the duffel comes home:

1. Shake everything outside, pockets turned out, before it crosses the threshold.
2. Sort by color, then texture: velvet with soft things, fleece away from zippers.
3. Wash cold, no bleach, then hang dry wherever you can.
4. Store it bone dry. General wisdom: hang cloaks and fold hooded blankets loosely, so nothing waits damp in a bin.

Then the best part. The cloak goes back on its hook, the velvet catches the window light, and somewhere on the calendar there's a festival with your name on it. Everything you need is clean, warm and ready.

Explore more festival layers: men's cloaks · women's cloaks · crushed velvet · joggers · hooded blankets · kids' festival clothing

Frequently asked questions

Can you put crushed velvet in the dryer?

Yes, on low. Magus Fawn's care instructions for crushed velvet, and for every garment we make, say tumble dry low, with hang drying as the best option. Pull the hoodie out promptly and give it a shake so the pile relaxes as it cools. Skip the iron entirely, since our care label rules ironing out.

Can you dry clean a festival cloak?

Not a Magus Fawn cloak. Our care instructions say don't dry clean, and you won't need to, because the cloak is machine washable at home. Wash it cold with like colors and no bleach, then hang it to dry or tumble dry low. Empty the four pockets and close the double front zipper first.

Does vinegar get rid of playa dust?

Many burners swear by it. Playa dust comes from an alkali lakebed, and a splash of white vinegar in the rinse is a common burner habit for neutralizing it, borrowed from the vinegar foot soak Burning Man recommends for playa foot. It's community practice, not Magus Fawn care guidance. Shake clothes out first, and never mix vinegar with bleach.

Can you iron crushed velvet?

Don't iron Magus Fawn crushed velvet, or any of our pieces, because our care instructions rule out irons for every garment. To relax wrinkles, shake the hoodie out while it's still slightly damp and hang it to finish drying. General velvet wisdom agrees, since heat and pressure flatten the crushed pile that makes velvet sparkle.

Written by Magus & Lylyth Fawn, the Los Angeles artists behind Magus Fawn. Magus makes VR and digital visionary art and produces Psy EDM. Lylyth makes fractal digital art and runs design and customer care. We've been selling wearable art since 2020 on Etsy (4.7★ from 144 reviews as of October 2026) and here at magusfawn.com. Come say hi on Instagram @magusfawn.