2600:8800:3136:BD00:E94C:CB57:B67C:3162: Fixed grammar

2021-11-07T17:55:47Z

Fixed grammar

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	Authentic Madras comes from Chennai (Madras); both sides of the cloth must bear the same pattern; it must be handwoven (evidenced by the small flaws in the fabric).<ref name="Checkered Past" /> Most popular in the 1960s.		Authentic Madras comes from Chennai (Madras); both sides of the cloth must bear the same pattern; it must be handwoven (evidenced by the small flaws in the fabric).<ref name="Checkered Past" /> Most popular in the 1960s.

	Cotton madras is woven from a fragile, short-staple cotton fiber that ~~can't~~ be [[combing\|combed]], only [[carding\|carded]],<ref name="Checkered Past" /> resulting in bumps known as [[Slub (knitting)\|slubs]] which are thick spots in the [[yarn]] that give madras its unique texture. The cotton is hand-dyed after being spun into yarn, woven, and finished in some 200 small villages in the Madras area.<ref name="Checkered Past" />		Cotton madras is woven from a fragile, short-staple cotton fiber that cannot be [[combing\|combed]], only [[carding\|carded]],<ref name="Checkered Past" /> resulting in bumps known as [[Slub (knitting)\|slubs]] which are thick spots in the [[yarn]] that give madras its unique texture. The cotton is hand-dyed after being spun into yarn, woven, and finished in some 200 small villages in the Madras area.<ref name="Checkered Past" />

	==History==		==History==

imported>Christian Gregory: Added ‘See also’ internal link to ‘Tattersall (cloth)’ –listed alphabetically– a related material.

2021-07-18T05:46:33Z

Added ‘See also’ internal link to ‘Tattersall (cloth)’ –listed alphabetically– a related material.

New page

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=January 2019}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2007}}
{{Expand French|Madras (tissu)|date=November 2015}}

[[File:Madras-tissue01a.JPG|thumb|right|A [[handkerchief]] with a typical Madras pattern]]

'''Madras''' is a lightweight [[cotton]] [[fabric]] with typically patterned texture and [[tartan]] design, used primarily for summer clothing such as pants, shorts, dresses, and jackets. The fabric takes its name from the former name of the city of [[Chennai]] in south [[India]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Mitchell D. Strauss|first=Anette Lynch|title=Ethnic Dress in the United States: A Cultural Encyclopedia|publisher=Rowman and Littlefield Publishers|year=2014|isbn=9780759121508|pages=189}}</ref>

Madras today is available as tartan (plaid) patterns in regular cotton, [[seersucker]] and as patchwork madras, meaning cutting several madras fabrics into squares or rectangles and sewing them back together to form a mixed pattern of various plaids.

==Definition==
Authentic Madras comes from Chennai (Madras); both sides of the cloth must bear the same pattern; it must be handwoven (evidenced by the small flaws in the fabric).<ref name="Checkered Past" /> Most popular in the 1960s.

Cotton madras is woven from a fragile, short-staple cotton fiber that can't be [[combing|combed]], only [[carding|carded]],<ref name="Checkered Past" /> resulting in bumps known as [[Slub (knitting)|slubs]] which are thick spots in the [[yarn]] that give madras its unique texture. The cotton is hand-dyed after being spun into yarn, woven, and finished in some 200 small villages in the Madras area.<ref name="Checkered Past" />

==History==
By the 1500s madras cotton had morphed into something more elegant, printed with floral patterns or religious designs.<ref name="Checkered Past" />

Dutch traders arrived in India in the early 1600s to trade in the local [[calico]] cloth, followed by the British. The [[English East India Company]] sought quality textiles, finding the small fishing village of Madraspatnam (Madras), and the company established a trading post there in the mid-17th century.<ref name="Checkered Past" />

The first madras material<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csvsfg |title=Cotton: a Yarn with a Twist |work=The Forum |date=19 December 2017 |publisher=BBC |access-date=29 October 2018}}</ref> was a [[muslin]] overprinted or embroidered in elaborate patterns with vegetable [[dye]]s.<ref name="Checkered Past" /> To secure a reliable [[Contract labour|labor]] supply, the English East India Company promised a 30-year exemption from [[Duty (economics)|duties]] for Indian weavers in the area, and thus within a year nearly 400 families of weavers had settled in Madras.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Schneider |first1=Sven Raphael |title=Madras Guide – How the Shirt, Pants & Jackets Became Popular |url=https://www.gentlemansgazette.com/madras-guide-shirts-pants-history-where-to-buy |publisher=Gentlemans Gazette |access-date=4 February 2021 |date=21 June 2019}}</ref>

Undyed madras cloth became popular in Europe because it was lightweight and breathable.<ref name="Checkered Past" /> Cotton plaid madras reached America in 1718 as a donation to the Collegiate School of Connecticut (now known as [[Yale University]]).<ref name="Checkered Past" /> [[Sears]] offered the first madras shirt for sale to the American consumer in its 1897 catalog.<ref name="Checkered Past" />

In the [[Philippines]], madras fabric was known as '''cambaya''', after the state of [[Cambay]] (present-day [[Gujarat]], India) that also exported madras fabrics. They were popular in the early 19th century for use in traditional women's skirts (''saya'') in the [[baro't saya]] ensemble, as well as for pants for the [[barong tagalog]]. Since they were expensive, they were copied by Chinese manufacturers as well as local industries, resulting in a lower-grade fabric that was usually used for clothing by commoners.<ref name="coo">{{cite thesis |type=PhD |last=Coo|first=Stéphanie Marie R. |date=2014 |url=https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01126974/document |title=Clothing and the colonial culture of appearances in nineteenth century Spanish Philippines (1820-1896)|publisher=Université Nice Sophia Antipolis}}</ref>

The name "madras" was attributed to [[shirt]] maker David J. Anderson in 1844,<ref name="Checkered Past" /> although the material had been referred to as such much earlier. In 1958 William Jacobson, a leading textile importer, traveled to [[Bombay]] to trade with Captain C.P. Krishnan, exporter of madras from Chennai (formerly [[Madras]]). The two men struck a dollar-a-yard deal for madras material possessing a "strong smell of vegetable dyes and [[sesame oil]]s," woven of bright colors and originally bound for [[South Africa]].<ref name="Checkered Past" /> Krishnan warned Jacobson that the fabric should be washed gently in cold water to avoid bleeding, advice that never reached the [[Brooks Brothers]] buyers to whom Jacobson sold 10,000 yards for the manufacture of madras clothing.<ref name="Checkered Past" /> Brooks Brothers then sold cotton madras garments to consumers without proper washing instructions, resulting in the bright madras dyes bleeding in the wash and the garments emerged discolored and faded. To counter dissatisfied customers, [[Madison Avenue]] advertising giant [[David Ogilvy (businessman)|David Ogilvy]] coined the phrase "guaranteed to bleed" and used this as a selling point rather than a defect. A 1966 catalog advertisement stated:
<blockquote>Authentic Indian Madras is completely handwoven from yarns dyed with native vegetable colorings. Home-spun by native weavers, no two plaids are exactly the same. When washed with mild soap in warm water, they are guaranteed to bleed and blend together into distinctively muted and subdued colorings.</blockquote>

In the United States, the plaid cotton madras shirt became popular in the 1960s among the post-[[World War II]] generation of [[preppy]] [[baby boomers]].<ref name="Checkered Past">{{cite web |last1=German |first1=Deb |title=Checkered Past: A Brief History of the Madras Plaid Shirt |url= http://www.orvis.com/news/products-we-love/checkered-past-a-brief-history-of-the-madras-plaid-shirt/ |publisher=Orvis News |access-date=4 February 2021 |date=9 June 2015}}</ref>

As early as the 1930s, cotton madras clothing was emerging as a [[status symbol]] in the US because only American tourists who could afford expensive [[Caribbean]] vacations during the [[Great Depression]] had access and thus the madras shirt was a signal of [[affluence]].<ref name="Checkered Past" />

==See also==
*[[Argyle (pattern)]]
*[[Check (fabric)]]
*[[Flannel]]
*[[Ivy League fashion]]
*[[Tartan]]
*[[Tattersall (cloth)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{fabric}}

[[Category:Woven fabrics]]
[[Category:Textile industry in Tamil Nadu]]
[[Category:Economy of Chennai]]
[[Category:Fashion aesthetics]]
[[Category:Upper class culture in the United States]]

Madras (cloth) - Revision history

2600:8800:3136:BD00:E94C:CB57:B67C:3162: Fixed grammar

imported>Christian Gregory: Added ‘See also’ internal link to ‘Tattersall (cloth)’ –listed alphabetically– a related material.