Ananya, Alizeh, Geet, and Naina.
These women are popularly referred to as the four pillars of modern desi fashion. Popularised by social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, these beloved characters from contemporary Hindi films (2 States, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Jab We Met, and Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani) influence the dressing etiquette of many college-going young women in India. No wonder then that OP Jindal Global University (JGU) in Sonipat is no exception to this trend.
Ethnic Indian pieces like kurtas, skirts, earrings, and bindis heighten Ananya’s experimentality, Alizeh’s unconventionality, Geet’s timelessness, and Naina’s relatability–a notion echoes by several students. By reclaiming and reimagining traditional attire, these characters project aunique, chic, fun, and flirty aesthetic.
Interestingly, a traditional embroidery style that dates back to the royal Mughal court—chikankari—ties each of their styles together.
“I think the chikankari is a classic and versatile piece of ethnic wear. It is especially popular among students and young adults because it is cheap and is available in any and all markets, be it Janpath, Khan market, an even GK!” said Riddhi Chawla, a final-year student at JGU and an avid wearer of chikankari kurtas.
What is Chikankari?
Chikankari is a traditional Lucknowi style of white-on-white embroidery which employs an intricate combination of stitches such as 'Bakhiya' (shadow work), 'Phanda' (knots), and 'Jaali' (net) to create delicate floral patterns.
The craft is believed to be a legacy of the Persian nobles of the Mughal court. One of its popular stories origin stories takes us back to the court of Jahangir, where Queen Nurjahan patronised the chikankari style of embroidering; Her dreamy white needlework propelled her to fame and imperial patronage.
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From the court of Jahangir to modern college campuses and Bollywood weddings, chikankari has journeyed across regional borders and trend cycles to become one of the most popularly worn and adored kinds of ethnic fashion.
But what makes chikankari so popular?
Why Chikankari?
Mariyum is a researcher at Lucknow Bioscope, an initiative powered by Sanatakada Trust which works towards carving a niche for Lucknow’s cultural legacies through discussions, exhibitions, performances, recitals, seminars, and workshops. She regularly hosts chikankari workshops with students and tourists in which she brings local artisans to teach attendees this embroidery style.
She believes that chikankari has become synonymous with Lucknow making it a popular, and profitable, business model that is capitalised on by many new entrepreneurs. “Chikankari has become very popular today not only because it reflects the cultural ethos of Lucknow but also because when people think of Lucknow, they think of chikankari; A lot of people who are starting businesses in Lucknow are pursuing chikankari because the craft is unique to Lucknow and it is extremely profitable today,” explained Mariyum.
“Youngsters know that if they wear something made of chikankari then it will draw compliments, and they like this fact,” she added.
Over the last few decades, traditional Indian crafts have grown in popularity with the growth of individual fashion designers and labels. The most prominent fashion designers whose aim has been to uplift the crafts of India are Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla. They have particularly used the chikankari embroidery and brought it to celebrities' red carpet and wedding trousseaus. For instance, Hollywood star Judi Dench wore one of Abu and Sandeep’s chikankari creations to receive her 2004 Oscar Award.
Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla showcased their debut chikan line in Delhi’s Oberoi hotel. In an interview given to the magazine The Week they said that by the 1980s, chikan had made its way to casual wear, although it lacked finesse. They began looking for artisans and traditional printing blocks to reinvent and revive the craft, and worked to help the artisans “discover the finesse and joy of creating fine fabrics like muslin, chiffon and georgette…”
Muskan Kaur, another JGU student, attributed chikankari’s popularity to the Hindi film industry. She said, “We do what movies tell us to do so often, and we look up to our favourite characters so much as well, which shapes what become “trendy” around us. I recall some of my favourite characters, like Aisha Banerjee (played by Konkona Sen Sharma) from Wake Up Sid, wearing a lot of Indo-Western clothes (including chikankari), which is half of the reason why I got into it. Perhaps social media also plays a role as well in popularising this trend so much,” she added.
One of the many other reasons cited for the re-emergence of chikankari, both by students and experts, is the versatility of the embroidery–it can be done on a variety of different fabrics and adapted to modern trends and styles.
Khushi Mahajan, another student at JGU, explained, “The resurgence of chikankari embroidery's popularity is due to a combination of its adaptability to styles and seasons, a re-emerging appreciation for Indian culture, and the influence of celebrities who regularly wear chikankari clothes in public. Celebrities and fashion designers have showcased chikankari on the global stage, which has amplified its appeal and visibility.”
According to Sugandha Suneja, assistant professor at NIFT Panchkula, some speculate that chikankari may have its roots in East Bengal, where it was born out of the need for the creation of an inexpensive alternative to the Jamdani weave of Bengal. Even today, chikankari’s adaptability allows it to be applied to fabrics of varying quality, spanning a wide range of price points and making it accessible to people of different economic backgrounds.
Apart from cotton, chikankari work can be done on mulmul, muslin, organzas, and polyester. Other popular materials include chiffon, viscose, georgette, polyester georgette, cotton crepe, and net.
In the creation of chikankari, several workers are employed at each stage from printing designs onto the fabric to the embroidery, cutting dyeing, and stitching of final pieces, making it an employment-generating craft. Today, the craft thrives in the rural villages surrounding Lucknow, where more than 5000 families are engaged in this tradition.
Despite the growing popularity of this specific art form, the industry continues to face challenges like low wages and competition from machine imitations. Mariyum, from Lucknow Bioscope, expanded on the difficulties faced by the industry today and said, “Some designers and large shop owners don’t necessarily pay the artisans as much as they deserve. Since the artisans work on a daily wage, the profit margins for these businesses are huge. The designers have capitalised on a popular art form and made it more accessible and mainstream.”
Chikankari as a means of self-expression
Several efforts have been made for the promotion of crafts like chikankari. For instance, since 2023, a team from the Indian Institute of Management in Indore has been exploring ways to bring global exposure to Lucknow’s chikankari through its integration into the government of India’s ‘One District, One Product’ scheme (ODOP). ODOP aims to promote regional development by selecting, branding, and promoting a product from every district.
Today, the efforts of designers, fashion lovers, patrons of traditional crafts, and filmmakers, have woven a fresh breath of life into this old, graceful tradition. Characters like Ananya, Alizeh, Geet, and Naina are the forerunners of this effort.
For students like Sheikha Mariyam Sam, a final-year JGU student, the growing demand for chikankari doesn’t only reflect a desire to feel like a mainstream Hindi film character but also reflects a larger desire of the youth to carve an identity rooted both in tradition and modernity. “We can always experiment with chikankari and still come off as modern and ethnic. For example, we can pair it with jeans and still look as desi as we want to,” noted Sheikha.
Shreya Saksena is a final-year journalism student at JSJC