The Global Checkered Past of Madras Plaid
How a Chennai-born pattern became both a staple of African resistance and American prep — and what it reveals about colonialism and empire.
In one 1961 ad, a man with an eyepatch and moustache faces the camera, with elephants standing proudly behind him. He’s clad in what would become one of America’s signature symbols of prep: madras plaid. The David Ogilvy ad boldly proclaims that “three trunks of India Madras started Yale University.”
Here’s the thing — we don’t know if this story is true. But in the 1710s, Elihu Yale, the former Madras governor, did send “31 pieces of Madras chintz, two pieces of choice cloth flowered with silver, one piece of rich satin with gold flowers, 13 pairs of large gingham sheets, two jars of mango chutney, a case of soy sauce, and a jar of nutmegs” to the now famous Collegiate School of Connecticut.
Just like the former governor became Yale’s namesake through looting India, the Madras fabrics he allegedly donated also shared a dark history — one that winds through India, Africa, and the Caribbean — only to be reinvented as leisure and prestige years later.