The name Lakshmi Menon is synonymous with social cause. The US-returned fashion designer hogged the limelight in the aftermath of the 2018 floods in Kerala for engaging in activities for a social cause.
She joined the rehabilitation programme by collecting soiled clothes to make dolls and sold them abroad for the welfare of weavers who lost their means of livelihood due to the floods. The dolls named 'Chekutty' have assumed a sovenier status and are still popular in the fabric design circles.
Lakshmi had launched a campaign for changing the heavy uniform of private security guards who suffer under its discomfort and burden.
'Transform a Uniform' (of a security guard) was a challenge initiated in December, 2019, at the Kochi Design Week. But the COVID-19 pandemic had slowed down the campaign.
The move to address, what Lakshmi terms as an occupational hazard, is back in full swing.
The designer is aiming at spreading awareness about the 'problem' and creating a good design to solve it. She has called all the stakeholders across the globe in the profession to join the campaign.
Anybody can take part in the competition and the criteria is to design an attire which suits the weather in the region and at the same time reflects the 'power, authority and poise' of security guards.
Talking about the initiative at an event in Kochi, Lakshmi said that people still prefer the executive-look dress for the security guards during events. "It's the colonial hangover that forces people to consider it as executive dress," she said and urged designers and socially sensitive people to think about a change.
