But, be sure, with the likes of Sabyasachi incorporating it into his collections – his designs often featuring lungi elements in skirts, dresses and larger ensembles – it’s just a matter of time that lungis enter the gilded racks of haute couture.
Once you snap out of your Armani-in-the tropics fantasy, you’ll realise that this tie-dye, once aristocratised, can be a kilt above the rest.
With the right designer, lungi can storm runways, swathe the elite, and ascend to its rightful ramp. Consider its design philosophy: effortless, transformative, draped like a Grecian tragedy, yet folded with the precision of a samurai’s farewell.
Why should Paris have a monopoly on ‘fluid silhouettes’ when the lungi is the OG deconstructed wonder? Cinched at the waist, billowing in just the right places, it flaps of nonchalance while giving that toga power-dressing.
The House of McQueen sculpting a lungi in decadent silk; Balenciaga giving it dystopian swagger; Iris van Herpen warping it into a kinetic sculpture that flutters as you boardroom-walk…. It will demand champagne and front-row exclusivity. Let’s stop pretending it as merely casualwear, or workwear for the ‘informal sector’. The only question is: which designer will dare? Sabya, you fancy a fold?
