Apparel August 2019 Apparel August 2019 issue | Page 73

FEATURE
CREATING AWARENESS
To preserve the legacy of chikankari, the need
of the hour is to create greater awareness of
the craft. At craft and design fairs, Malavika has
observed that buyers are often not aware of the
effort that goes into crafting a chikankari garment
that spans an entire chain of human activities,
right from drawing motifs, creating blocks or
stencils to transferring those designs on cloth,
the actual embroidering process, continual
supervision of artisans and checking of progress
of the embroidery, the finishing, and washing.
These are also precisely activities that make
chikankari expensive.
“By informing customers of the processes,
there would be greater appreciation of the work.
Chikankari is a mélange of stitches, and there
is simply no other embroidery expression like it
in the world. When people are not willing to pay
for fine work, the quality of work goes down to
make it more affordable, which does injustice to
the craft. Further, the embroidery is being used
on Western garments but only to a limited extent.
There needs to be awareness of chikankari’s
scope when it comes to Western garments too,”
Malavika expresses. She adds that although
the Government has initiated schemes to help
artisans, the benefits often do not reach them.
times, are a valuable resource for artisans and
designers. Collectively, these resources are helpful
and informative, in that they contribute to the
revival and preservation efforts of the art form.
Chikankari: A Lucknawi Tradition, written
by Paola Manfredi, shows how chikankari is
“a creative blend of delicate embroidery with
very fine dressmaking and sewing techniques.”
The book is a result of the examination of
antique chikankari garments and textiles in
various collections and in-depth research of
the technique, motifs, and stitches. It is well-
illustrated with photographs of fine chikankari-
embroidered garments including close-ups and
samplers. Another book is Costumes and Textiles
of Awadh by Sushama Swarup, which talks about
a variety of garments—including those consisting
of chikankari—of the erstwhile princely kingdom
of Awadh.
Appreciating and buying handmade chikankari
is not just about buying it for the sake of it being
handmade. It is about preserving a heritage and
supporting the skill and creativity of embroiderers,
who expertly enmesh fluid motifs with fine stitches
to create exquisite, one-of-a-kind garments. It is
about securing livelihoods and appreciating and
promoting a textile technique that has long since
been the pride of our nation.
A VALUABLE RESOURCE
Very few samples of antique chikankari garments
have survived into the 21st century, in museums
and private collections. Books containing
chikankari-related imagery, and garments and
samplers embroidered with chikankari in ancient
APPAREL
I
August 2019
I
67