Chikankari

Chikankari is a centuries-old craft. It is an intricate and elegant art of embroidery, requiring immense patience and time but one that yields some of the most beautiful results.

The city of Nawabs, Lucknow, in India is not only renowned for its cuisine but also for its stunning, delicate, traditionally white-on-white embroidery known as Chikankari. This type of intricate shadow work is refined and elegant but also a time-consuming process practised mainly by the skilled artisans in Lucknow. It's an arduous process that is a compilation of designing, engraving, block printing, embroidery, washing and finishing. First, the fabric is cut according to requirement. Then it is block printed with design motifs on which the embroidery is done. The cloth is then washed several times and finally is ready to use.

It takes years to become a master in this style of embroidery and multiple days to complete even a single garment. chikan cannot be replicated by a machine. "There is nothing like machine-made chikan. Although so many places in the world are moving away from handmade and toward digitized everything including embroidery, computers have absolutely nothing on what humans can produce by hand. The inconsistencies and finesse of chikankari is its identity of being handmade

Working with craft, you need not only knowledge of the technique and tradition but sensitivity to the craftspeople themselves, as well as an understanding of their social and cultural roota. We are still mesmerized by the work of artisans and are interested in not only celebrating what handmade really means but also in collaborating with companies who are focused on the preservation of cultures, families and the crafts that have binded them together for centuries. hough dedicated to sustaining the craft and to giving it a future, the family are equally keen to maintain its history.