How to Wear Chambray Without Looking Like You Tried Too Hard

For twenty-five years, society dictated what I wore. White shirt, olive green shorts, tie knotted just so for school. A slightly better fabric in the form of trousers was college. Then came the office, which dropped the tie and called it freedom. It wasn't. It was tyranny parading itself as free will.  

Then March 2020 happened, and the whole world came to a standstill. 

In the beginning of the lock down, you’d always find me in my XYXX inner boxers and XYXX invisible vests. Sometimes the vest was optional, but always in the boxers. And the thing about the early days of the lockdown was that this attire was a small, quiet rebellion against  a quarter-century of performative formality and uniforms. 

The problem with the rebellion was that it wasn’t well thought out. 

The doorbell would ring; delivery, house help, a neighbour's kid looking for his cricket ball and I'd be halfway across the flat, scrambling for shorts like a man pulled out of the shower. Meetings were worse. Scheduled ones I could prepare for. The unscheduled ones I took waist-up, frame cropped tight, praying nobody asked me to stand up and do a fit check. 

Five years and a bit years on, I've learnt a few things. The goal was never to get back into those godawful polyester trousers. The goal was to find the clothing worthy of the rebellion itself-  comfortable and chic. 

Which is how I ended up in XYXX chambray pyjamas. 

The Chambray Pyjamas in powder blue, technically, have a drawstring. They're cut for sleep. But the fabric,  a washed, muted chambray that looks like denim's quieter cousin. It passes. Not as trousers, but as something presentable enough. Someone who cares about what they look like. 

This is the whole trick. You don't dress up to wear chambray pyjamas. You dress around them.

Start with a plain tee. TheXYXX Supima Cotton T-Shirt in Butter yellow is the one I keep reaching for. Soft enough to sleep in, structured enough for date night. With the chambray below, the whole outfit is giving, effortlessly goodlooking . The house help comes in, the delivery boy hands over the order, you make your coffee. Nobody looks twice. Nobody has to. 

This is the hardest thing to get right in home clothing — looking like you didn't try without looking like you didn't care.  

But what if it’s a Saturday afternoon. F1 on the television, friends crowded on your L shaped couch. Someone's brought beer, someone else is threatening to order chicken lollipops again. This is where the Oversized sweatshirt in Blue comes in. Drop-shoulder, structured oversized, rich blue against the warm grey of the chambray. The monotone hides your anxiety with a sharp top against a relaxed bottom.  

Same uniform, one layer up. That's the whole move. 

But what if you had to go outside? The real proof is the street. Quick run for cigarettes, the pharmacy, a coffee you couldn't be bothered to make. Pair it with the Anti-Tan Parka Jacket in Ash Grey and now we’re talking. UPF 50+, summer-weight, folds into its own pouch. Tee underneath, parka on top, chambray below.  

A Mumbai afternoon doesn't forgive sloppy dressing. It also doesn't forgive tight jeans. This is the outfit that answers both.

The men's style internet wants you to believe that effortlessness is a vibe. It isn't. It's what's left once you've shed twenty-five years of uniforms and five years of scrambling and finally landed on clothes that don't demand anything from you. The XYXX chambray pyjama is the endpoint of that work. The uniform you chose yourself. 

Unbothered. Comfortable. The rest is noise.