A chikankari suit piece looks effortless, soft fabric, delicate white embroidery, and a quiet elegance that feels timeless. What’s easy to miss is the extraordinary amount of human skill, patience, and coordination that goes into creating it. Chikankari is not a factory-made embellishment; it is a living craft shaped by generations of artisans, most notably from Lucknow.
It Begins With the Fabric
The journey starts with fabric selection. Cotton, mulmul, voile, chiffon, georgette, or silk are chosen based on how well they can hold fine hand embroidery. The fabric must be breathable yet strong enough to survive weeks, sometimes months of handling, stretching, and washing.
Once selected, the fabric is cut into panels for the kurta, dupatta, and bottom. These pieces move separately through the craft process, often handled by different specialists.
Designing and Block Printing
Before a single stitch is made, the design is transferred onto the fabric using hand-carved wooden blocks. These blocks are dipped in washable dye and stamped repeatedly to create a precise pattern. This step requires an expert eye, any misalignment can ruin the symmetry of the final piece.
The printed outlines act as a roadmap for the embroiderers, guiding thousands of tiny stitches that will follow.
The Embroidery: Heart of Chikankari
This is where the real labour lies. Chikankari embroidery is done entirely by hand, traditionally by women working from their homes or small workshops. A single suit piece can involve dozens of stitches such as bakhiya, phanda, murri, jaali, and keel kangan, each with its own technique and rhythm.
What makes this work demanding is not just time, but precision. The stitches must be even, tension must be controlled, and the reverse side of the fabric should be as clean as the front. One mistake can unravel hours of work.
Washing and Finishing
After embroidery, the fabric is washed to remove the printed design marks. This process is delicate: too rough, and the stitches loosen; too gentle, and stains remain. The fabric is then starched, dried, and carefully ironed to bring out the relief of the embroidery.
At this stage, subtle flaws are corrected by hand loose threads are tightened, uneven areas refined. Only then does the embroidery truly come alive.
Assembly and Final Checks
The embroidered panels are stitched into a complete suit piece or left unstitched, depending on the product. Final quality checks ensure uniformity of stitches, alignment of motifs, and fabric integrity. Given that multiple artisans handle one suit, consistency is a challenge that requires experience and discipline.
More Than Just a Garment
A chikankari suit piece carries more than beauty, it carries invisible hours of labour, cultural memory, and human touch. In an age of speed and automation, chikankari survives because it cannot be rushed. Every stitch insists on time, attention, and respect for the craft.
When you wear chikankari, you’re not just wearing embroidery. You’re wearing the quiet dedication of artisans who keep an old tradition alive, one stitch at a time.