In 2020, Limi Tom had just quit her job and was looking forward to some quality time for creative pursuits when, during a random session at the gym, she fractured her palm, thus throwing a spanner in her plans.
“Learning to play the drums, hand embroidery, baking, kayaking… these were some of the things that I had wanted to pursue. With a platinum in my palm, never mind these — I was struggling to even put on my clothes,” Limi says.
The difficulties didn’t end there. Limi was also struggling to perform ordinary tasks that she had until then paid no attention to, like opening doors, turning knobs, etc. It opened her eyes to the many difficulties that people with mobility challenges face daily, especially outdoors.
It was as if the world was built only factoring in the abled, and more specifically, the right-handed abled people. Everyone else was at a severe disadvantage.
An MBA graduate who had over two decades of experience in the corporate sector, Limi wanted to address this and work towards a solution. She remembered quite vividly the elation she felt the first time she managed to change her clothes without any help.
“I messaged all my friends, sharing my joy, but people couldn’t understand what the big deal was about. But I knew instinctively just how paramount this sense of independence was to someone who had to rely on others for everything. This reclamation of dignity,” Limi says.
So, the 43-year-old began to work towards that. She read up on ‘adaptive clothing’ and learned that outside India, there were plenty of clothing options to address all possible conditions of limited mobility.
“However, here, the options are limited or non-existent. I had tried a dozen shops during the early days of my injury to find an easier dress. But there’s nothing!” Limi says.
Her first designs found no takers. But discussions with several doctors working in different domains provided crucial design inputs. There were further tweaked using real-world feedback from the staff of a care centre for the elderly, where Limi had previously given samples.
“We acted on those and created new designs for unisex T-shirts. These clicked, and very soon, orders began to trickle in — first from family and friends, and later, a wider circle,” she says.
The first design lets you detach the T-shirt right up to the arm and slide it off one’s head and the other hand. The second slides from front to back and has velcro strips on the back. The third opens on the front. The fourth is a sleeveless T-shirt with velcro on both side seams. One of the T-shirts is an original patented design from Liyell. Besides these, they also make hospital gowns.
“Initially, I wanted to go with the name Limitlezz for the brand. But since the name was taken, I chose Liyell (derived from ciel — French for sky). But on the T-shirts, you will read ‘Limitlezz’ for that’s what we wanted to convey: ‘no one is limited’,” Limi says.
While the T-shirts are made in Tirupur, the gowns and dresses are manufactured in Kerala by women-run units. A city hospital has a standing order for the latter. Liyell’s functional adaptive clothing are machine washable.
“With our product lineup, we are empowering those with mobility challenges to reclaim some semblance of independence. This inadvertently also reduces caretaker fatigue, leading to a more positive bond between the patient and the caregiver,” Limi points out.
Built up from scratch and bootstrapped, Liyell was given Kerala Startup Mission’s Innovation Grant in 2024. Limi was also awarded the Inclusion Fellowship 2023 in recognition of her work in creating inclusive solutions through Liyell.