THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thought lungis were just for men? Meet Abira Pathak who, in her attempt to connect with her own community, is bringing out lungis for everyone with her brand Thatch. The 27-year-old, who originally hails from Orissa, works with artisans from her home state who specialise in Pattachitra—which is a traditional art form that involves geometrical, floral and tribal patterns.
“The manufacturing is divided between Kolkata and Chennai. And the idea is to work with Bangladeshi and Burmese weavers as well,” says Abira, who has a day job with the singing app Smule, and previously worked with Facebook. Which is where she networked with several designers and fashion houses—and realised that she loved working with different fabrics.
Finding her muse
The apparel, however, isn’t new, with men and women from several communities across India adapting the lungi in their own way. As a child, she always saw her grandfather wearing lungis. “It was never my grandmother’s saris that I gravitated towards. It was always the lungis he used to wear.”
Eventually, Abira moved to Mumbai and decided to start Thatch. After much research, she put out three pieces on Instagram this month. Within 48 hours, they were gone. “The response was incredible. And in 10 days, I had sold 10 lungis,” says the ecstatic entrepreneur. When she started wearing them to work in Mumbai, she realised that the humble lungi came with a lot of misconceptions attached to it. The most glaring one being that people equated the apparel to just South India, or a lower income group of people. “They just weren’t able to comprehend the lungi in an urban setting,” shares Abira.
Kerala connect
On a recent trip to Kochi for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, she decided to purchase handloom lungis, don it, and walk around. She received much flak from local men for the way she had tied it. “You can wear it in whichever you want and style it with accessories. Right now, I am looking at collaborating with weavers in Kerala and working with handloom lungis,” she adds. Lungis from Rs 650 are available online.