HYDERABAD: A message explaining a woman’s plight triggered Hareesh Chowdary, the founder of Deddimaag.com, a Telugu T-shirt brand, to do something out of their routine.
A woman who kept her identity hidden reached out on Deddimaag’s Instagram handle about a boss who ogle’s at her breasts shamelessly at her workplace. Now as workplace harassment stories go, this was a sensitive issue and she did not want to escalate it fearing loss of her job or worse, her boss wrath if she stayed.
Hareesh narrates, “She requested to get a quote on a T-shirt that would get her discomfort across in style.
We suggested she got a few of her friends to wear it too so it turns into a silent protest without making it hard on her job.”
He adds, “When she brought her request to us, we did not make tshirts for women yet. After that we added a tab just for women which had tshirt quotes that fit women’s style and mind.”
The conversation on their Instagram messages (with names blacked out) along with their designs did rounds on social media and were lauded by many as a great initiative.
Hence began the series of tshirts in Telugu that said “Gudlu peekutha” (Will gouge your eyes out), Kallu paina unnay (Eyes are up here) and Endhi aa soopu (What are you looking at) added in the “Sthreelu” tab on the website.
Hareesh admits, “There are a lot of players now in the vernacular fashion space right now. We already were doing customisation and requested T-shirts.
"But we added these because it’s not all about business and money. These are women making a statement and if we can help with that then there’s nothing like it.”
Since the designs came on board, Hareesh states that there have been orders flowing in for the same.
“This was a market we did not expect we would tap into. But the fact that it is serving a cause is a cherry on top,” he says. The T-shirts are selling at the cost of `349 each.