Get the latest tech news
A humble Indian fabric became a symbol of luxury in 1960s America
Madras became a staple of preppy American fashion in the 1960s after advertisers spun its tendency to bleed in the wash as a selling point.
One of New York’s original “Mad Men” was called in to salvage the situation — British advertising tycoon David Ogilvy, who ended up coining the tagline “Guaranteed to Bleed,” spinning the apparent flaw into a unique selling point. Records seen by Metropolitan Museum of Art researcher Kai Toussaint Marcel show that Portuguese merchants traded the Indian fabric in North Africa and the Middle East as far back as the 13th century, and that the Kalabari people of Nigeria used it in dresses and headdresses and during religious and spiritual rituals. Marcel, writing for the Tommy Hillfiger-backed “ Fashion and Race Database, a project founded by Parsons School of Design professor Kimberly M. Jenkins, added that West African slaves brought to America likely kept these traditions, and the fabric, alive.
Or read this on Hacker News
