Chennai welcomes Pallavi Dhyani’s OFF–GRID collection inspired by slowing down

This Spring Summer 2026, THREE arrives with a quiet proposition—step away. Titled OFF–GRID, the collection is less about escapism and more about recalibration. The collection marks another chapter for founder Pallavi Dhyani, whose design language has always favoured ease over excess.

OFF–GRID explores ease, breathable cottons and versatile silhouettes

“This collection started very personally,” Pallavi says. “It came from burnout—from overconsumption, from the over-availability of everything around us.” In an industry that thrives on speed, she chose pause. Not as a branding exercise, but as a lived experience. She travelled to Bali and other tropical pockets, not to ‘seek inspiration’ in the conventional sense, but to slow down. “I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh, I’m here to design.’ I was just absorbing. Observing more. Rushing less.”

The result is OFF–GRID—a collection that feels sun-warmed and sea-soaked without slipping into cliché resortwear. Its palette draws from rock and tide—layered blues, earthy browns, and muted sea tones. An underwater algae formation becomes a print rendered in tonal variations of blue. “If I was feeling calm, it was because I was seeing blue all the time,” she reflects. “Blue and green bring me a lot of comfort. So I used them in different tonalities—navy, electric blue, and sea blue—but in a way that still feels like THREE.”

Founded nearly a decade ago after Pallavi graduated from Pearl Academy, THREE was born out of instinct rather than trend forecasting. “Boxy clothes weren’t a big thing then,” she recalls. “It was just how I liked to dress—layering, ease, comfort. I couldn’t find enough of that, so I started making it.” Practicality was never an afterthought; she won recognition in college for creating one of the most wearable collections of her year. “I always put myself in the wearer’s shoes. Ergonomics, functionality—that matters to me.”

That sensibility continues to anchor OFF–GRID. Nearly 80 per cent of the collection is crafted in 100 per cent cotton, with the rest in cotton-silk blends, chanderi, crepe and sheer net layers. “Cotton is our base. It breathes. It moves. Even when we add fluidity with crepe or transparency with net, it’s about balance.” Dresses—not traditionally a dominant category for the brand—appear more frequently this season, informed by Pallavi’s time in coastal climates. “In tropical places, people don’t layer so much. It’s too hot. So we experimented with more dresses.”

Skirts, too, make a stronger showing. A pleated skirt featuring a splash-line print paired with a flared top stands out as one of her personal favourites. “I don’t love everything I design,” she says candidly. “But that skirt—and an abstract tie jacket—those I would wear a lot.” The key, she insists, is versatility. Though styled as coordinated sets, each piece is meant to live independently in a wardrobe. “You can wear the skirt with your own white shirt. You don’t have to wear it exactly as we styled it. That ease is important.”

Ease also informs her approach to production. Pallavi is measured when discussing sustainability—wary of the term’s overuse. “I’ve never labelled THREE as a sustainable brand. I think it’s one of the most misused words in fashion today.” Instead, she focuses on systems: made-to-order pieces, limited sales, recycling fabric waste, reusing packaging, eliminating plastic in her offices. “We can’t suddenly become zero-carbon. But we can be responsible. We can educate our team. We can reduce.”

Slow living, for her, is not aesthetic but operational. “It has to be your nature. It cannot be a fad.” She speaks of slow mornings, of carving out time to stretch, water plants, sit in stillness before emails begin. “Earlier, I was in that hustle phase—two jobs, constant movement. But you realise later that pace has consequences. Now, better planning, better organisation—that’s also slow living.”

THREE, which operates stores in Kala Ghoda, Mumbai, and in Delhi, releases five collections annually, with summer as its strongest season. OFF–GRID is the first of two major summer drops—expansive, yet unforced. It does not shout for attention; it invites you closer.

In a landscape of spectacle, Pallavi’s offering feels almost radical in its restraint. “Sometimes,” she says thoughtfully, “slow living is appreciating the lack of something. Today there is over-availability of almost everything. Maybe we don’t need more. Maybe we just need better.”

Price on request. At Collage, Rutland Gate, Chennai. Flagship stores in Delhi and Mumbai.

—manuvipin@newindianexpress.com

@ManuVipin

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