Madras
is a lightweight
cotton
fabric with patterned texture,
used primarily for summer
clothing -- pants, shorts,
dresses and jackets. The
fabric takes its name from
the former English name
of the city of Chennai,
India.
One style popular during
the 1960s was called
bleeding Madras. It
used
dyes
that were not colorfast
in a typically
plaid
design, resulting in bleeding
and fading
colors
that yielded a new look
to the fabric each time
it was laundered.