(NEW YORK) The team at Vintage Red just returned from a trip to India, where they encountered madras—which, naturally, will making an appearance in their Spring/Summer ‘07 collection. A fabric with such a history should be part of any fash-insider’s vocabulary. To ensure your Fash Week cocktail conversation is up to par, devour and discuss, chicettes!
Madras is a loosely woven, fine cotton fabric whose name originally comes from the English moniker for Chennai, India. Typically vegetable dyed in plaids, stripes, or checks, with a tendency to fade when washed, the plaids reflected the regions own obsession with Scottish tartans worn by the occupying regiments back in the 1800s. It was Ellerton Jette, president of Hathaway shirts, who introduced the fabric to America in the 1930s after seeing it on a trip to England; howeverm buyers unfortunately retuned the shirts in large quantities after discovering they faded. Leave it to advertising legend David Ogilvy to spin the fade into a fad, saying, "Guaranteed to fade…Magical things happen to this shirt when you wash it.” By the 1960s, a special version called the “bleeding madras,” made from non-colorfast dyes, caused the fading colors to run and created a new look after each wash. Soon, it became associated with socialites of the day (a.k.a. the Socs), as popularized by S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, which referenced the fabric as part of the set’s preferred look. Today, it’s even spread to Dominica, where it’s worn as a traditional dress.
Besides Vintage Red, madras also popped up as bright and pastel colors in Sonia Rykiel’s spring men’s collection. So while the fasheratti is already looking to the runways for Fall ’08 looks, no doubt this casual cotton will continue to be a comfortable post-Fash Week choice for the preppy set. Article and Photo from Fashion Week Daily.
Madras is a loosely woven, fine cotton fabric whose name originally comes from the English moniker for Chennai, India. Typically vegetable dyed in plaids, stripes, or checks, with a tendency to fade when washed, the plaids reflected the regions own obsession with Scottish tartans worn by the occupying regiments back in the 1800s. It was Ellerton Jette, president of Hathaway shirts, who introduced the fabric to America in the 1930s after seeing it on a trip to England; howeverm buyers unfortunately retuned the shirts in large quantities after discovering they faded. Leave it to advertising legend David Ogilvy to spin the fade into a fad, saying, "Guaranteed to fade…Magical things happen to this shirt when you wash it.” By the 1960s, a special version called the “bleeding madras,” made from non-colorfast dyes, caused the fading colors to run and created a new look after each wash. Soon, it became associated with socialites of the day (a.k.a. the Socs), as popularized by S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, which referenced the fabric as part of the set’s preferred look. Today, it’s even spread to Dominica, where it’s worn as a traditional dress.
Besides Vintage Red, madras also popped up as bright and pastel colors in Sonia Rykiel’s spring men’s collection. So while the fasheratti is already looking to the runways for Fall ’08 looks, no doubt this casual cotton will continue to be a comfortable post-Fash Week choice for the preppy set. Article and Photo from Fashion Week Daily.
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