‘Indian Gowns Small and Great’: Chintz Banyans Ready Made in the Coromandel, c. 1680–c. 1780

Abstract

The article focuses on the close study of a group of eighteenth-century chintz nightgowns that were ready-made or partly ready-made in India for the European market. Whereas nightgowns are usually associated with the taste for the exotic and the spread of the fashion is sometimes linked to the availability of the garment on the ready-made market, the production of ready-made gowns in India and the methods put in place to manufacture these commodities have not been studied. Based on a close reading of surviving chintz nightgowns, the article attempts to understand production techniques put in place by Indian craftsmen to meet European demand. Material evidence suggests streamlined production processes were in place in India from the end of the seventeenth century that had no real equivalent in Europe. The article thus sheds further light on the idea of Europe's ‘Indian apprenticeship’, showing that Indian mastery of colour was coupled with production methods combining artisanal, non-mechanized work with a level of bulk production and enhanced efficiency.