Dr. Deepthi Murali’s new digital humanities project, Connecting Threads: Fashioning Madras in the Caribbean, uncovers the remarkable history of the Madras handkerchief – a checked cotton textile that traveled from the looms of weavers in South India to become an affective symbol of style and identity in the Caribbean and beyond. The project’s interdisciplinary team of researchers from the US and UK reveal how this journey began with Indian weavers working for colonial trading companies. Once it reached the Caribbean, free and enslaved Black women used the Madras handkerchief as distinctive neck clothes and head wraps, creating their own fashion statements that would later influence styles in North America and Europe.
Visit connectingthreads.co.uk where you'll find an immersive digital exhibition, a comprehensive research database, ready-to-use lesson plans for educators, and an extensive bibliography for further reading. Join us in discovering how a simple textile wove together the fashion histories of multiple continents and cultures.
May 28, 2025