New
Everyday mulmul, tepchi vines running the full length
₹3,490₹4,29019% off4.8 (486)Rated 4.8 out of 5 from 486 reviews
Chowk, Lucknow · Hand embroidered since 1961
Authentic Lucknawi Chikankari — the white-on-white shadow work of the old city, embroidered stitch by stitch by the families who have always made it.
Where to begin
Off the frame
Everyday mulmul, tepchi vines running the full length
Named for running water — the Mughal name for the finest muslin
Short kurta and wide-leg trousers, embroidered as one
Collar, cuffs, pockets — cut to sit under a blazer
Muslin shirt and trousers for a long, hot day
Four hundred years, one city
The block printer works in a shop. The cutter works in a shop. Then the cloth goes out to homes across Chowk, Daliganj and Thakurganj, where women embroider it in the hours between everything else in their day.
That is where the money usually goes missing. Cloth passes through three or four hands between the shop and the frame, and each hand takes a cut of a rate that was low to begin with.
We buy direct. The rate is agreed before the frame is set up, it is per piece rather than per hour so careful work isn’t punished, and it is paid on delivery of the panel — not on sale of the garment.
How to read a chikankari price tag
Coverage tells you very little. The named stitches tell you everything — a garment with four of them took someone a month.
Tepchiتیپچی
Running stitch
The outline. Worked on the right side, it defines every motif before any filling begins. Simple to learn, unforgiving to do well — one uneven length shows across the whole panel.
See pieces worked in TepchiWhat you are buying
Chikankari has a long supply chain and most of the money goes missing in the middle of it. We removed the middle.
38
artisan families
We work directly with 38 families in Chowk and Daliganj. No middlemen, and the rate is agreed before the frame is set up.
100%
hand embroidered
Machine chikan exists and it is cheap. We do not sell it. Turn any piece inside out and you will see the knots.
6–11
weeks per luxury piece
A dense yoke can carry four thousand phanda knots. There is no version of that which takes a week.
15
day returns
Free reverse pickup across India. If the fit is wrong we will exchange the size once at no cost.
“I've bought chikankari in Lucknow itself and this is better finished. The inside of the garment is as clean as the outside, which tells you everything.”
From the atelier
The Craft · 6 min read
The single detail that separates real chikankari from everything that imitates it.
Care · 4 min read
Six things that keep undyed thread white, and one that will yellow it in a single wash.
The Atelier · 7 min read
Chikankari is embroidered almost entirely by women, at home, between everything else.
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