I Am Audmi

Maison Audmi began as a desire to destigmatise the idea of the man in a dress. A combination of the Hindi words Aurat (Woman) and Aadmi (Man), the label is a tongue-in-cheek homage to androgyny in menswear. 

Noticing a shortage in the market for dresses available in the menswear section, Urvashi Lele established the Indo-British label to make beautiful clothes for the male body. The designs bring romantic shapes and soft silhouettes to break the boundaries of traditional men’s fashion.

Handcrafted in a cozy little atelier in South Mumbai, each garment is made using precision tailoring techniques used in bespoke menswear design. The handloom fabrics are sourced from artisanal weavers around India or from deadstock suppliers to keep the process cruelty-free, ethical and as sustainable as possible.

The label prides itself in global collaborations with artisans from Australia, Britain and The EU alike.

With a decade of experience working as an animator, Urvashi is a Savile Row trained dressmaker who intends on using her design knowledge to create visually striking pieces of clothing. As someone who moved from India to the UK at a young age, she hopes to combine the craft of clothes-making from both countries in her work. The label’s ideologies center around the decolonisation of masculinities in India and celebrating the shared cultural heritage which has been the inevitable bi-product of that colonisation.

The ultimate goal is to do without “menswear” or “womenswear” as the categories of the clothing that we purchase. Challenging the codes of masculinity in menswear is the first of many steps we can take to living in a future where clothing stores present garments based on body shapes and size rather than gender.