Circa 2005, there was a trip to Goa. Nothing remarkable about it except that I came back with harem pants. Not one pair. Three. In hindsight, this was either the best decision I'd ever made or the foretelling of a very long dry spell. Probably both.
Here's what nobody tells you about harem pants: they're extraordinarily good at doing summer. The cotton breathes. You move with the freedom of someone who doesn’t have to worry about sweat. Whether I was at home doing nothing of consequence or making the fifteen-metre pilgrimage to the kirana store, those pants made every degree of Indian summer feel negotiable.
The problem, of course, was the optics. People assumed things. Aunties at weddings asked my mother if I was "going through something." First dates ended with a polite smile and no second text. A kirana uncle once handed me my change and said, with real concern, "beta, sab theek hai na?” The consensus fix was, and I'm not making this up, jeans. This, according to the collective wisdom of everyone I knew, was going to solve the supposed ongoing life crisis.
I refused. Not out of stubbornness (not entirely), but because I'd already felt what good summer fabric actually meant. I wasn't going back to something that turned into a second skin the moment I stepped outside. Jeans sticking to my thighs were not, in my considered opinion, a style reference for a man trying to survive a Mumbai April. I just needed cotton in a form that didn't make me look like I'd recently returned from an ashram.
That's where the XYXX chambray pyjama comes into the picture.
Everything I Know About Chambray (Which Isn't Much)
Honestly, I don't know the full mechanics of why it works. I'm sure there's a fabric scientist somewhere who can walk you through it, but that's not my department. What I can tell you is that the weave looks good. It adds dimension to whatever you pair it with, and unlike the harem pants, it is quite pleasant to look at.
And it pairs with basically everything. At home, I've worn a chambray pyjama with invisible vests, and it works. Plain XYXX Supima T-shirts, it works. With XYXX oversized ones, it works especially well! The structured texture below balances the slouchiness of the shirt above, and suddenly, you’re no longer the stereotypical writer type, but the one that every aunty in your society wants her fair maiden daughter to marry. Okay, maybe that’s a stretch.
But you get it.
I no longer look like I'm about to offer anyone a crystal or a theory about their past lives. People meet me now and assume I have a job. This is progress.
Why My Skin Stopped Holding a Grudge
XYXX’s Chambray doesn't stick. That's the part I keep coming back to. The fabric that plasters itself to your skin on a forty-minute commute is hostile in Mumbai’s heat. There’s no other way to describe it. Chambray, on the other hand, the gentleman that he is, keeps a respectful distance. You're wearing it, but you're not really aware of wearing it.
The harem pants were cotton in their most honest, aesthetically unbothered form. They worked because they prioritised experience over appearance. XYXX Chambray pyjama is what happens when you don’t have to choose between the two.
It looks like something you can wear to kirana stores, while feeling super comfortable all throughout. That's a rare combination. Most fabrics make you pick between looking put-together and feeling comfortable. XYXX chambray pyjamas says, screw that, here’s both.
Summers don't change because you find a better fabric. They change because you stop tolerating the wrong one.
If you know, you know. If you don't — you do now. Try the XYXX chambray pyjamas and find out for yourself.
BY UMAIRE EFFENDI...
About the author: Umaire Effendi is a writer and film & television professional with over a decade of experience across India and Canada. His cross-cultural background gives him a distinct lens on modern Indian lifestyle, one that understands how India doesn't just follow global culture, but absorbs it, integrates it, and sends something entirely new back out into the world. He writes about men's fashion and culture by taking things apart, the why behind what Indian men wear, and what it says about where we're headed.
