Madras Checks rule once more!
Madras Checks, one of our city’s contributions to world, and written about as such by Chandrachoodan in an earlier post, have made a serious come back on the fashion scene. The Gap, a major US brand, has a whole summer collection including jackets, informals, casuals and swim wear, and is aggessively promoting them in stores and the media. Seems like its an enduring contribution!
I’m working in Boston and walking past a GAP store there, I noticed that they had a line of summer wear called “Madras…”. I was really shocked!
I have seen them Old Navy too…
I have seen them in Old Navy too…
Soon, Sarongs will look like lungis
In the 50s and 60s the entire Washermanpet area of Madras was on this – and even then we were exporting mostly to Africa and in particular Nigeria – these were then called Madras Hand Kerchiefs — quite a few of these exporters have become very big now. Would our people concentrate on this again?
Ya, and the ad campaign is not anything new. GAP has been running this campaign every summer for at least a couple of years now.
Also brands such as American Eagle that cater to the under 30s (I said under 30s cos I am older than 20 and younger than 30 and I still wear these brands) carry a whole lot of Madras checks too.
And not to nitpick, the brand is just ‘Gap” (not even GAP, though their logo reads that way).
Off track, just wondering will our government order that to be changed to CHENNAI checks?
@ Anantha:
I was using it that way because it looked like a pretty big store (a big Gap, get it?). Already I hear the angry mob beating my door down for that joke. I’d better go make some coffee for them.