There is an old photo of my grandfather on display at home, from his time in Malaysia. He is wearing a blazer and a turban of sorts. However, it is a portrait, so I could never figure out whether he was wearing a full suit or had chosen the path of many Tamil professionals of his days, and was wearing a Veshti/mundu as part of his outfit. But what was certain was the charisma and confidence that he exuded through those images. Growing up in South India, I saw the less formal version of the Veshti, called the lungi being worn every day by people across genders, and carrying it off with a lot of swagger while going about their everyday life. While the younger generation had writtenit off from even the ideal loungewear for warm Indian summers, there has been a recent uptick in it being viewed as a garment that signifies culture and identity. When attending my first Lakme Fashion Week, the lungi felt like a natural choice to set the base for an outfit that spoke to the culture that I could make my own. But I was inspired by many individuals online who have embraced the attire again, and Padani Kandagama was at the top of the list, in inspiring me to re-examine how the lungi and sarongs were looked at. For the last two years, Sri-Lankan origin Padani has been styling them in a multitude of ways while living her life in Paris as a model and stylist.
For Padani Kandagama, the lungi isn’t a supporting act or mere homewear — it is central to her styling language. In her latest work that has drawn wide attention and appreciation, she styled them alongside homegrown brand RKiveCity’s sharp, upcycled designs, which were also during Paris Fashion Week season in its streets. In this series, the draped garment stands on equal footing with blazers and long coats. Set against the rain-washed stone of Palais de Tokyo, with the models wearing chappals like everyday South Asian folks, the looks bridge the hierarchy between the “formal” and the “domestic,” reframing diaspora memory within one of fashion’s most powerful capitals.
“I always felt like there was a hierarchy in garments as well. A blazer is formal wear and respected. A lungi is worn to sleep or for daily work. But I feel like in the hands of a diaspora individual, what is domestic becomes powerful. The longing and desire to feel closer to one’s own culture makes it in the eye of a diaspora individual even more valuable, so that is why I think it is less of a juxtaposition but more of putting it on an equal footing, at least for me,” Padani shared with me during our conversation.
While she captioned the project as a 'little styling session,' the images are layered in many ways and highlight the interplay between structured jackets and the fluidity of the lungi. In delving deeper into the topic, she shared about how her initial inspirations were from archival images of the officers of The British Raj.
“In my styling language, the lungi takes centre place. Two years ago, I rediscovered the Sarang/lungi for me. It was in the beginning more out of longing and memories from the motherland that ignited it. But slowly it became an essential element in my styling. When I saw the pieces from Rkivecity, I immediately sensed that Ritwik created them with the same nostalgia that I felt when I encountered the lungi in a little shop at La Chapelle in Paris. So when he came to show his collection in Paris, I immediately reached out asking to create something together. I visited the showroom at Palais de Tokyo to get a feel for the designs, and the initial idea for the shoot was inspired by archival images from the British Raj."Padani Kandagama, Stylist and Model
Padani went on to share her favourites from the archival images that inspired her; Indian men in traditional ornate tunics and simple draped sarongs, posing with their swords and umpteen accessories, others pairing elaborately patterned dhotis with crisp tailored jackets with what looks like lapel chains and brooches. When looking at the final result of her shoot, there’s something powerful about placing garments like the lungi - often coded as domestic or utilitarian - within the framework of Paris with pieces tailored to precision, especially during Paris Fashion Week season. When I talked to Padani about her styling choices for the series, she shared that she how sheI felt like the structured blazers and the flowing fabric of the lungi naturally found their own way to exist together. While in some looks she created pleated patterns to give the lungi structure, in others she used folds to make it more sculptural; all coming together to create looks that look as powerful as many of her inspiration images.
But a series like this is not just about one person’s perspective, but rather brought to life by creative collaboration among many. In discussing more about how this look came together, Padani shared how it all started -"I met Ritwik at his first showroom in Paris in 2024. And kept visiting his showrooms since then, not only for the amazing pieces but also for the community that is always present. The photographer Kaj, whom I met through another shoot in which I was one of the models, and I really liked her energy, and she is super talented, and when I reached out, she was super open to working together. The models I casted via instagram and by reaching out to their respective agencies. I really loved their looks! And Adsaaraan Pira is from India, so he even knew how to tie the lungi, so it really felt like having fun and reminiscing about our experiences from the motherland. We were at Palais De Tokyo in Paris, it was a day after the Rick Owns show, and we were shooting outside while looking at the Eiffel Tower. The rain from the morning was still present, and the models were walking around in slippers that all the uncles wear daily, but this was in the middle of winter. I think so many parts of this shoot are about recreating a memory from childhood, but in a different reality and time, which doesn’t necessarily make sense, but it does make sense to a person from the diaspora.”
While winding up our chat, it naturally led into a wider conversation on how, as a Sri Lankan creative in Paris, Padani sees her own cultural lens influencing the way she styles South Asian garments within global fashion spaces. For her, she feels like her styling exists only in the way she relates to her own culture, and Paris has enabled her to play with it.
With curiosity and her cultural rootedness leading the way, while the global fashion surrounding her in Paris influences her interpretation of them, Padani is a South Asian creative who is bringing new interpretations to age-old sartorial sensibilities. In the same breath, she is also inspiring many like me to wear our culture in ways that are fitting for the times, and to take them beyond old albums or our private homes, and into spaces where they might have earlier been considered out of place.
Follow Padani here.
Follow Rkive City here.
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