Jenna Sisselman and her husband, Brian, were flipping through the pages of his 1960s high school yearbook one evening when they took note of a big-time fashion trend at the boys prep school he attended: Madras shirts, shorts, pants, jackets and belts.
This fad in the United States marketplace has come and gone and come back again repeatedly over the decades. “It was so cool, everyone wore it,” said Jenna.
With that, the Sisselmans started Cape Madras classic and timeless American apparel for men and women. Jenna was a registered nurse in Maine before launching it with her adventure filmmaker husband in 2004. “It was really a fluke,” she said. “You learn as you go along.”
And that the couple has done, starting with that night looking at the yearbook, then designing items featuring madras in their home in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. They’ve grown from being exclusively a wholesale business selling to a handful of retailers mostly along the Eastern Seaboard to a three-store operation with a warehouse in Boston and abundance of wholesale accounts.
“The ‘60s yearbook was opened to kids dressed in madras shorts, shirts and blazers,” recalls Jenna. “A light bulb went off – I’d revive, update and sell one of the best staples of preppy wear – patch Madras. I begged, borrowed but mostly collected credit cards and was off to India to find the best Madras in the world.”
After weaving hundreds of samples, she picked her favorite colors, then went home and raided her closet of her favorite pieces, timeless classic styles that she couldn’t find anymore and she called it her “new” line.
Madras is a lightweight cotton fabric with typically patterned texture and plaid design, used primarily for summer clothing such as pants, shorts, dresses and jackets. The fabric takes its name from the former name of the city of Chennai, India.
Madras today is available as plaid patterns in regular cotton, seersucker and as patchwork Madras.
Patchwork Madras is fabric that is derived from cutting several Madras plaid fabrics into strips, and sewing them back together as squares of three-inch sizes that form a mixed pattern of various plaids crisscrossing. As a fabric, it is notable because the front and back of the material are indistinguishable.
“Our product is resort wear,” Jenna explained from her shop on Ocean Drive, the interior painted white to set off the burst of bright colors coming from Madras, seersucker and Pima cotton clothing and accessories. After all, the Cape Madras motto is “Dress like you’re on vacation.”
Large photographs from India tell a visual story of the process from dying to weaving to production. There are images of yarn hanging to dry on bamboo sticks; women patching and weaving; and a coal iron pressing Madras.
For the first seven years, Cape Madras was a wholesale business catering exclusively to stores in so-called “preppy pockets” such as Darien, CT, Nantucket and Harbor Springs on Lake Michigan. Three years ago, the first Cape Madras shop opened in the resort town of Kennebunkport, ME, and last year, the Sisselmans opened another shop in Naples, FL.
Opening a shop in Vero Beach made a lot of sense to Jenna, who has strong ties to the area. Her late grandparents lived here, and parents currently reside here. She has been coming here since she was a child, and in her adult life, brought her own children to Vero on holidays and school breaks. She opened on Ocean Drive in early November.
“Madras has been around for thousands of years,” Jenna explained. “There are Madras items out there, but it has to come from Madras, India to be authentic Madras.”
Patch Madras is excellent warm weather fabric, 100 percent cotton and very breathable. “It’s classic, timeless, durable and very resorty,” Jenna adds.
Madras fabrics are historically darker tones; however, the Cape Madras line offers bright, preppy colors.
“Madras as a fad comes and goes, but there’s a group of people who always love it, who always buy it,” she said. “It comes in waves in terms of mass appeal.”
Inventory includes Madras pants, shorts, skirts and more; seersucker shirts; printed cotton blouses and tunics; and a cotton knit collection that features Pima cotton from Peru.
The Sisselmans travel to India and South America on a regular basis which has enabled Cape Madras to morph into a well-rounded line with Madras and cotton designs.
Items include:
-geometric prints on 100 percent cotton
-skorts in pink, orange and green madras
-mini skorts and short-shorts
-pencil skirts and Bermuda shorts
-The Katie shirt with 3/4ths sleeve
-seersucker shirts
-long-sleeve and longer-cut blouses made of 100 percent cotton
-tank dresses
-knit collection of Pima dresses with 97 percent cotton, 3 percent stretch
-belts, scarves, totes, traditional Panama hats, pattern leather handbags, accent pillows
With many stores selling Cape Madras, a factory they built in rural India, three company stores and customers reliving great memories of long, warm summers with friends and family, Jenna says, “If I knew where I was going, I might never have gotten here.”
