During your Tours to Uttar Pradesh, if you want to have a close encounter with the Crafts of Uttar Pradesh, search for some clothes and fabrics having Lucknowi Embroidery on it. You won’t be able to help but feel mesmerized by these beautiful designs, created quite painstakingly by the deft and nimble fingers of the artisans.
Lucknowi Embroidery in Uttar Pradesh features mainly the intricate Chikan Kari. Though Chikan Kari was an important part of Indian culture since 655 AD, it was strongly rekindled by Noor Jehan, the Moghul queen. Lucknowi Embroidery and Chikan Kari in particular, not only enjoyed the Mogul’s patronization but also attained wide spread adulation as the superb needlework and hand work underwent more and more honing and refinement.
Uttar Pradesh Lucknowi Embroidery has a class of its own. Lucknow still maintains its unrivaled supremacy as the producer of the finest Chikan in the country. Despite the long association between Chikan Kari and Bollywood, there existed a recurring problem to contend with even a few years back.
Eager to preserve the originality of this art form and prevent it from undergoing a dilution to the market forces, the craftsmen of Lucknow- the leaders of the couture, were unwilling to alter it to match the requirements of the tinsel town and the organized fashion world. However, the scenario has changed lately, courtesy the exposure and the popularity offered by some of the big commercial successes on the silver screen. So, a. A sense of professionalism and the change in attitude among the younger age new found adaptive and accommodative attitude could be seen among the hitherto conservationist craftsmen group of Chikan Kari workers have brought this style of Lucknowi Embroidery to the forefront once again.
