Activewear has travelled a long way from the gym floor. Leggings now accompany coffee runs, flights, school drop-offs and working days, while sports bras and movement-friendly separates have become part of how women build their everyday wardrobes. As the boundaries between exercise and the rest of life have softened, expectations of these clothes have grown. Looking good is only the beginning. They also need to stay comfortable through a workout, a commute and whatever comes afterwards.

That is where the smaller details become important. A waistband that needs constant adjusting can interrupt a training session. Fabric that looks appealing online may feel very different in humid weather. And a pair of leggings designed around a studio photograph may struggle to accommodate the variety of bodies and routines it encounters outside it.

For the founder of Sawsee, these were familiar frustrations. As a strength coach, she spent much of her life in workout clothes and watched other women negotiate the same compromises. The search for a better pair of leggings eventually became a business, following more than eighteen months of development.

Yet Sawsee describes itself as a playwear brand, a distinction rooted in the belief that movement belongs throughout the day. Its design question is straightforward: will a woman want to keep wearing the clothes after her workout?

In this conversation with Balcony Stories, Mahi Mohan discusses designing for Indian women, the lessons she carried from her earlier venture, Lo Cal, and why a dependable waistband can matter as much as an ambitious brand vision.

What was the personal frustration that first sparked Sawsee, and when did you realise it could become a business?

Sawsee started because I was honestly tired of choosing between looking good and feeling comfortable. As a strength coach, I lived in workout clothes, but most leggings either rolled down, felt too hot for Chennai, or just weren’t made for Indian bodies.

At first, I wasn’t trying to build another company. I was just obsessed with finding the perfect pair. Somewhere during that search, I realised thousands of women were complaining about the exact same things. That’s when it stopped feeling like a product idea and started feeling like a business worth building.

How did your experience as a strength coach shape your understanding of what women need from their clothes?

Coaching changed everything for me. You watch women squat, run, stretch, lift, and you notice things they don’t always say out loud. Waistbands slipping, constantly adjusting sports bras, avoiding certain movements because they’re worried about transparency.

I learned that performance isn’t just about fabric. It’s about confidence. If a woman forgets what she’s wearing during her workout, we’ve done our job.

What did building your earlier venture, Lo Cal, teach you that you carried into Sawsee?

Lo Cal taught me that people don’t come back because your marketing is great. They come back because your product genuinely solves a problem.

It also taught me patience. Trends come and go, but building trust takes years. With Sawsee, I’ve been much more willing to say no to shortcuts, even when they’re cheaper or faster.

What is the story behind the name Sawsee?

Sawsee is actually a playful way of saying “saucy.” We loved the energy of that word. Confident, cheeky and full of personality. We changed the spelling to make it uniquely ours.

The brand has never been about being loud. It’s about giving women permission to play, whether that’s in the gym, at work or just living everyday life.

You describe Sawsee as “playwear.” What does that mean to you, and how does it influence your designs?

We intentionally don’t call ourselves an activewear brand. We’re a playwear brand.

Playwear is clothing designed for movement, but not limited to exercise. You should be able to wear our leggings to lift weights, grab coffee, travel or spend an entire day with your kids without feeling like you need to change.

Every design starts with one question: will she keep this on after her workout?

You spent over a year and a half developing the brand before launching. What was the hardest thing to get right during that period?

Fabric, without a doubt.

We sampled endlessly because I refused to compromise on feel. A legging can look beautiful online, but if it pills, loses recovery or feels synthetic after a few washes, it won’t survive in someone’s wardrobe.

Those eighteen months were mostly spent saying, “Not yet.”

What does designing for Indian women mean in practical terms, from body diversity and fit to climate and everyday routines?

Indian women don’t have one body type, and they definitely don’t have one lifestyle.

Our fit has to work for someone who’s 5’1″ and someone who’s 5’9″. It has to survive humid weather, long commutes and women who wear the same outfit from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Designing for India means respecting real life, not just studio photos.

Your four signature fabrics, FABUL, PLAYE, EARTHKIN and SERENE, serve different needs. What should a woman know when choosing between them?

They’re really four different personalities.

FABUL is our performance fabric. It’s smooth, sculpting and made for strength training.

PLAYE is softer and slightly lighter. Think everyday movement and all-day wear.

EARTHKIN is our bamboo cotton blend for yoga and slower moments. It’s breathable and incredibly gentle on the skin.

SERENE is comfort first. The fabric you’ll reach for when you’re lounging, travelling or just having a slow Sunday.

Can you take us through how you test a garment, from its first prototype to repeated workouts and washes?

We wear everything ourselves first.

A prototype goes through strength workouts, yoga, walking, washing, drying and then more washing. We check recovery, colour, stitching, waistband stability and whether it still feels premium after repeated use.

If I find myself adjusting it during a workout, it goes back for another sample.

Which small design detail in your collection took the most effort to perfect, and why did it matter?

The waistband.

It sounds simple, but getting a waistband to stay in place without digging into your stomach is surprisingly difficult. We changed the height, compression and internal construction multiple times.

Women notice it within five minutes of wearing leggings, so it was worth obsessing over.

Activewear often promises to sculpt or reshape the body. How do you balance that messaging with encouraging women to feel comfortable as they are?

I’ve never liked the idea that women need fixing.

Our clothes can support, flatter and move beautifully with your body, but they shouldn’t make you feel like your natural body isn’t enough. We talk more about strength, movement and comfort than chasing a particular shape.

Feeling good is always more powerful than looking smaller.

What goes into making your sustainability claims measurable, particularly around bamboo fabrics and manufacturing?

We try to be very careful with sustainability because it’s easy for fashion to make vague promises.

For us, it starts with making products that actually last. We use responsibly sourced bamboo where appropriate, work with manufacturing partners we know closely and use recycled packaging across the brand.

I’d rather make fewer honest claims than bigger fashionable ones.

How has self-funding Sawsee shaped your decisions about quality, pricing and growth?

Self-funding makes every rupee emotional.

It forces discipline. We can’t throw money at every campaign or launch dozens of styles. Instead, we’ve invested heavily in product quality and let growth happen a little slower.

I’d rather build a brand people remember than a brand that grows fast for the wrong reasons.

What customer feedback has challenged your assumptions or led you to change a product?

One customer told us she loved our leggings so much that she wore them to work, but wished they had slightly deeper pockets. That stayed with me because it reminded us that women weren’t buying these just for workouts.

Feedback like that pushes us to design for everyday life, not just the gym.

As someone building a business around movement and comfort, what have you learned about making room for both in your own life?

Ironically, building a fitness brand made me move less for a while. Startups have a way of consuming every hour of your day.

This first year taught me that movement doesn’t have to be perfect to matter. Some days it’s a heavy lift, some days it’s a walk with my daughters, and some days it’s simply stretching between meetings.

That’s become the philosophy behind Sawsee too. Play isn’t something you earn. It deserves a place in everyday life.

The conversation returns repeatedly to everyday details: a waistband that stays put, a pocket with enough depth, a fabric that remains comfortable after repeated wear. These are the practical expectations at the heart of Sawsee’s playwear proposition. They also offer a useful way of thinking about activewear as its role in women’s wardrobes continues to expand.

For Mahi, the ambition is to create clothes that accommodate movement in its many forms, including the less organised moments between work, family and other commitments. Her own experience gives that ambition a personal dimension. A workout, a walk with her daughters and a stretch between meetings all deserve room in the day—and, in Sawsee’s vision, clothes that make it easier to move through them.

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