Mundu, not so mundane: The unstitched revolution that's wrapping up Indian fashion

Economic Times

2 days ago

For Delhi-based Ramachander Poodipeddi, a 36-year-old consumer electronics and policy professional, the initiation into veshtis happened during his stint as a government official in Tamil Nadu where he would see politicians wear it quite often. It looked comfortable and he decided to give it a go, in and around the house.
Starting with the wrap, which is called veshti in Tamil Nadu and mundu in Kerala, he tried other styles, inspired by the sari draping his wife Rajeswari M Ramachander, a handloom enthusiast and founder of Label RaMa, did. Today, his wrap wardrobe has weaves sourced directly from Kerala, West Bengal, Mangalagiri in Andhra Pradesh, Salem in Tamil Nadu and Gopalpur in Odisha. Poodipeddi's favourites are the 120-180-count dhotis from Bengal and Kerala and he sticks to handwoven fabrics. 'The comfort factor of a handwoven cotton dhoti is addictive,' he says.
Like all drapers, Poodipeddi had initial inhibitions: what if it comes loose? Is it too transparent? He says, 'One of my key motivators was to wear clothing suitable to the Indian climate. I ask myself why others aren't experiencing this comfort and still wearing jeans in such hot weather?'
It is a question that many style mavens are asking as they try to wrap their head around the idea of a draped lower for men. Ramesh Menon, Kochi-based textile revivalist and founder of Save The Loom, says nothing works better than the traditional wraps—dhoti, veshti, mundu, lungi—for keeping it cool in the Indian weather. The draped garment, worn in large parts of Asia, lost its sheen with the entry of tailored and silhouetted garments. Menon says it became largely confined to certain segments: worn at home, by the poor, in rural areas, on traditional occasions. It was this shackle that Coimbatore-based Ramraj Cotton's founder and chairman KR Nagarajan tried to break with its 'Salute Ramraj' campaign in 2006. Starring actor Jayaram, it drew from Nagarajan's own experience of being denied entry into a five-star hotel as he was wearing a veshti.
Ramraj Cotton is one of the biggest success stories in the veshti market. It made the garment a style statement, backed by high-decibel marketing and some big-ticket names as ambassadors— Rishab Shetty, Venkatesh Daggubati, Abhishek Bachchan and Shreyas Iyer. 'When we started in 1983, no one wanted to make veshtis,' recalls Nagarajan. 'The weavers were losing their livelihood. I took it upon myself to uplift these families. We started with about 15 weavers and today more than 50,000 weavers work with us.' They include power - loom and handloom weavers.Nagarajan says the 'Salute Ramraj' campaign was a turning point. The ad showcased the celebrity model as a successful business - man stepping out of a luxury car wearing a veshti. He enters hotels and boardrooms where men in suits greet him. Nagarajan says sales soared by about 30% after the campaign and the company continues to see growth at a steady clip of 20-30% year-on-year through various innovations—like Velcro closure and pockets, and shorter veshtis for children. Ramraj now has 350+ stores, offering over 3,000 styles of dhotis as preferences vary from state to state.It is a different mundu game in Kerala. 'For me, being a Malayali, a mundu is a given. Unlike dhoti in north India, the culture of wearing a mundu is very much alive in Kerala. So one does not need to work extra hard to revive it,' says Kochi-based designer Sreejith Jeevan of Rouka. For Rouka, mundus happened by chance when Jeevan put up a picture of his own embroidered mundu. Enquiries poured in, giving him the cue that people are looking for something fresh.Rouka, whose mundus retail for Rs 2,500-3,500, sold 400 pieces last year. 'People go for mundus for various occasions. The Aksharamala mundu (with Malayalam letters) sells the most during Vidyarambham, our Kolam mundu is picked for Pongal. But the main sales happen around Vishu and Onam. Thanks to the multiple Onam celebrations now—at home, work, school and even gyms—the demand is robust.' Apart from Kerala, Rouka's orders come from Bengaluru, Mumbai and West Asia.That there's a need to revamp the wrap is clear to Menon. In his seventh year in business, he is busy doing that with the mundu—the wrap he's most familiar with. He says, 'Cultural significance is not sacrosanct. It should adapt to modern needs and not merely be seen packed by history and nostalgia.' His initial research revealed that the mundu commanded the biggest market share, about 65%, of all woven products in Kerala. There is a steady market for men's mundu which comes in two sizes: the double mundu (4 m) and the single mundu (2 m). The Kerala State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society (Hantex) sold 14,120 premium mundus through its showrooms in the state in 2024-25 for Rs 1.4 crore. This is a 20% growth in value over the previous year. Ajith K, marketing manager, Hantex, says, 'When it comes to quantity, the numbers tend to fall for traditional garments like mundu, but value addition, like in the case of the premium mundu, which costs Rs 1,000- 1,900, has pushed up the figures.' Menon says there has not been much innovation in product and design: 'Most commercial brands or designers work simply by embroidering , screen printing, or hand painting.'
In 2018, they did a line in the colours of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. In 2021, they launched a four-way double mundu and a two-way single mundu that can be worn in multiple ways with different-coloured karas or borders. Menon says, 'Additionally we also devised newer ways of wearing/ stitching the mundu to appeal to a larger urban audience and travellers.' This November, Menon is gearing up for The Mundu Project where Save The Loom will reimagine the mundu in collaboration with designers like Vivek Karunakaran, Gaurav Khanijo, Divyam Mehta, Gaurav Jai Gupta and Ujjawal Dubey The versatility of the mundu—a piece of unstitched fabric in a onesize-fits-all format—makes it easy to reinvent. It's the drapery that excites Ateev Anand, designer and founder of re-ceremonial, an ethical fashion brand that tries to understand how clothing within the subcontinent is worn and understood as a concept, and then gives it a modern, relevant con - text. The mundu was part of its first ever collection in 2022. 'Just by adding a pocket, the look turned, for want of a better word, fresh.' This year, he worked with the mundu as a co-ord set. But even now, he's not putting it out as retail pieces because he feels men need to be talked into it. 'The challenge is to offer it as an unstitched drape. If you tailor it too much, it loses its versatility,' says Anand. His bigger mission is to make people comfortable with making an effort to dress up. 'I want them to under - stand that the minute you invest time on how you dress, you invest time in yourself.' And for him, the unstitched draped garment is 'it'. The Bengal dhoti surged in popularity after actor Saif Ali Khan was seen in the traditional Mayur Puchha dhoti last year, catapulting Abhisek Roy, who designed it, to fame. Earlier this year, he debuted his Lakme Fashion Week collection that concentrated heavily on dhoti. He swears by the unstitched dhoti that can be worn in 100 different ways. 'There's slowly a change in men's approach to style. They are eager to experiment with silhouettes, fits and patterns. What's also causing a stir is a back-to-the-roots movement in fashion,' he says. 'And people are not restricting themselves to their own region.' Not just big players like Ramraj and MCR, but smaller enterprises are looking to capitalise on the niche style needs of men. Sari giant KKE Venkatachala Bhagavathar & Sons, which runs the online platform Muhurth, is tapping the formal dhoti segment apart from focusing on their staple, silk saris. Prasad Dayalan, founder of Muhurth, says, 'While silk dhotis have always been part of our offering, we have noticed a growing demand in recent years, especially from men who are particular about quality, design and colour.' Their silk dhotis with angavastram cost Rs 14,000 to Rs 50,000. Their B2B dhoti sales are 350-400 a month, while D2C sales are around 50, though it is not their primary focus. Silk dhotis are mostly produced in and around Salem. For Kerala mundu, the major hubs are Balaramapuram, Chendamangalam, Kannur and Kuthampully. Says Menon: 'A majority of mundus in Kerala are hand - loom, while the rest of the South mostly wears power - loom mundus that start at Rs 150.' The gender fluidity of the garment is what made designer Pranav Misra, founder of Huemn—a contemporary Indian streetwear label—launch a lungi skirt in June. The design merges the comfortable lungi silhouette with elements of the skirt. Misra says, 'The lungi represents memories of fathers lounging at home, trips back to ancestral homes and the films we watched growing up. What our design does is make the garment accessible to a younger crowd, removing the constraints of gender, gaining the comfort of the skirt, while remaining true to its essential nature.' While these lowers are traditionally worn by men, women too are adding it to their wardrobe. Bengaluru-based artist and interior designer Susan John has three lungis that she picked from Tiruchirappalli. She wears it around the house. 'It's easy to move around in and I feel good.' Women are the prime clientele of The Sufi Studio's take on lungi and dhoti. The Goabased design studio's founder Varsha Devjani says women are more open to experimentation though the number of men, too, are rising for them. 'Most people feel it takes time to drape the garment and that it compromises mobility,' says Devjani. Their bestsellers have pockets, a belt to keep it freesize and a waistband to make it easy to wear.Reinvention is needed for these garments to survive, Menon reasons out why: one, handloom is still largely seen as a cottage industry and that creates a perception problem; two, weavers are still making conventional products; three, machine-made products do sell. Menon found a way around: they took the Kerala khadi mundu and worked with about 20 national designers to reinterpret it as garments. The ongoing project, since 2018, is a permanent exhibit at One Zero Eight by Save The Loom, their concept retail space in Kochi. 'As a mundu, it is not fetching enough to sustain weavers and is prone to competition from power looms,' he says. One big push for draped garments is happening on social media, says content creator and Indian textiles hobbyist Pritha Dasmahapatra. 'Unlike in the South where these garments are everyday wear, the dhoti has not had as much acceptance in North India,' she says. Could that change? Delhi-based content creator Rohit Bose found his fame, thanks to dhotis, on Instagram (@boseoninsta). He started out as a fitness influencer and is currently on a multi-city draping workshop tour. 'I try to do many looks with dhotis—with blazer, shirts, T-shirts and denim— to modernise it,' says Bose, 35. He would like to see the dhoti go abroad—like the Met Gala or the Cannes red carpet. Goa-based designer Praful Makwana, who started documenting traditional Indian drapes in 2020, uses his Instagram account @mistermakwana as a drape chronicle. 'I try to connect with the younger lot by showcasing traditional drapes with modern accessories like leather jacket, harness, boots or in neon colours. It's unfortunate that we have to do all this to make our traditional wear seem 'cool',' he says.
Menon recalls how economist Abhijit Banerjee wore a Suket Dhir ensemble that had a Kerala kasavu weave worn as a Bengal-style dhoti to receive the Nobel memorial prize in economics in 2019. 'It's a product that can have a universal market. It's on the verge of finding its moment,' says Menon. It's time to wrap it up.