The cluster · Uttar Pradesh, India
Lucknow
Chikankari — the chain-and-shadow white embroidery of Lucknow — is the work of generations of women. Aratrikkaz works with three home-based collectives in old Lucknow, where the craft is passed mother to daughter.
Chikankari has been the signature embroidery of Lucknow since the Nawabi period of the 18th century. It uses six distinct stitches — bakhiya, hool, ghaas patti, jaali, keel kangan, phanda — each of which catches the light differently. The cumulative effect is texture, not decoration: the embroidery looks like it grew out of the cloth.
Historically and still today, chikankari is almost entirely women's work. The women of old Lucknow do this embroidery from home, in the hours between household labour, often without a frame — the fabric loose in their lap, the pattern carried in memory. A finely worked anarkali takes four to six weeks of one woman's evenings.
Our three Lucknow collectives are paid by the piece, not by the hour, at rates we have published openly on the Promise page. We do not negotiate fees down. We are not the cheapest market for them; we are not trying to be. We are trying to be the most predictable, the most respectful, and the most willing to wait for the work to be done properly.
If you order a custom chikankari anarkali from us, the lead time is four to six weeks. We do not rush this work. The reason chikankari from machine-imitation looks wrong is that machines cannot lay six different stitches in the patterns these women have memorised. Hands can.
6
Stitches in the chikankari vocabulary
250+
Years the craft has been in Lucknow
4–6
Weeks for a fully worked anarkali
3
Collectives we work with directly
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