Madras

Cotton textile woven with large multi-colored checks, typically in bright, vivacious colors. Orginally from the Indian city of the same name where, at the end of the nineteenth century, it was handwoven and dyed exclusively with vegetable dyes. Today, the term refers solely to the design, regardless of the type of fabric used. It is mainly used for summer clothing, particularly shirts and trousers, as well as 1950s revival jackets. Avant-garde designers (such as Moschino, Westwood, Kawakubo) have often used madras for entire garments. The menswear collection of Comme des Garµons from Fall-Winter 1997-98 used it in a double version.