Traditional, ethnic, unique fashion from 'Nawabo ka shahar', Chikankari

Traditional, ethnic, unique fashion from 'Nawabo ka shahar', Chikankari

Chikan is a traditional embroidery style from Lucknow, where chicken work is known as chikankari. chikan is a delicate and artfully done hand embroidery work on a variety of textile fabric like muslin, silk, chiffon, organza and net. white thread is used for embroidery on shades of muslin and cotton garments. now days coloured thread is also used for fashion trends to keep chikankari funky. Lucknow is known for chikankari today and the variety is known as Lucknawi chikan.

In the recent times chikan work is also done for mukaish, bead and mirror work which gives it a rich look.chikan embroidery is mostly done on fabrics like cotton, pure goergette, semi-goergette, silk crepe, chiffon etc. the fabric can not be thick or hard else the work can not not be done by needle. first the embroiderer used pattern blocks to print a pattern on fabric, 
than stitches the pattern and the finished peice is carefully washed.

The patterns depend on the stitches and the thickness of the thread used. these stitches are backstitch, chain stitch and hemstitch.shadow work is one of the stitches of chikankari. it is called shadow because the embroidery is done on back side and we see its shadow on front side.

Chikan work began as a type of white on white but now days chikankari is done on colourful fabrics which gives chikankari a very elegent and beautiful look.
credit: third party image reference