Sunday 12 June 2022

Original Madras Trading Company / VIDEO: Original Madras Trading Company SS-20 Handwoven


Original Madras Trading Company

https://www.omtcnyc.com/

 



Origin

FROM MADRAS TO NEW YORK CITY

Original Madras Trading Company is a family business with a checkered past. My grandfather established the company when he arrived in New York City in the early 1970’s with a trunk full of Madras checks. Over time he established our office on 38th Street in the garment district with views of the Empire State Building. Today we still trade from those same offices and continue to supply many of the most renowned names in American clothing. While continuing our business of making and supplying both fabrics and garments from southern India to brands around the world through our New York office, we have initiated a new project making a range of clothing using exclusively hand woven cloth. True to the spirit of my grandfather, our handloom project is a way to remind people of the rich origin story of Madras cloth and its profound ties to both the American and Indian societies and their two tremendously distinct and yet interwoven cultures.

 





Madras Cloth

MADRAS CLOTH DEFINITION

The true definition of Madras check is: A pure cotton yarn dyed plain weave cloth with a minimum two color irregular pattern and most importantly woven in Madras with pure Indian cotton. Originally and to this day the best Madras is woven by hand.

            

MADRAS CLOTH ORIGIN

The South Indian historian Sriram said, “Madras(now Chennai) was founded not for spices and gold but for cloth.”

The weaving of cotton cloth in South India was renowned for centuries prior to the British building a harbour in Madras in the 18th century, but it was this port and the British East India Company that led to textiles from Madras being traded throughout the modern world. That is the origin of the Madras check and how it found it’s way to being worn around the globe, from headscarves in Africa and the Middle East, to kimonos in Japan and jackets on the Island of Nantucket to shorts on the Island of St.Barths.

 

MADRAS TO THE U.S.

For decades Madras check cloths have found their way into mens’ wardrobes by many routes. In its 1897 catalogue Sears offered a Madras shirt and from the 1920s onwards Madras check shirts and jackets have continuously appeared in American catalogues and have become a staple in the American East Coast wardrobe.

 

MADRAS TO THE U.K.

The British were undoubtedly influenced by the Duke of Windsor’s partiality for Madras checks, like so many other sartorial trends instigated by him. The Duke’s fondness for Madras cloth probably arose during his time as the Governor of the Bahamas and this likely caused its widespread adoption especially by those wealthy enough to holiday in the Caribbean.

 

Hand Weaving

HANDLOOM SINGLE WEAVER CLOTHS

All items under the Original Madras Trading Company turmeric yellow selvage label are made by us using single weaver cloth hand woven on a handloom.  Single weaver cloth means fabric that is woven by one individual weaver from start to finish using a completely manual handloom to interlace two sets of individual yarns.  One set being the warp or length of the cloth and the other set being the weft or the width of the cloth.

 

A SLOW PROCESS

In terms of production single weaver handloom cloth is much, much slower than ubiquitous machine loom fabric.  For comparison, it takes our master handloom weavers 2-3 hours to weave one meter of fabric depending on the complexity of the pattern whereas current machine looms are able to weave at a continuous rate of one meter every 5-10 minutes regardless of the complexity of the pattern.  That means that on average weaving by handloom is 30 to 40 times slower than ordinary machine loom.  This massive production limitation is the reason for hand weaving being so extremely rare today.

 

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