Original Madras Trading Company
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.
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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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