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Luxury handicrafts · 05

Chikankari &
Zardozi Embroidery

Lucknow Chikankari and Zardozi metal-thread work — the finest hand embroidery India produces, and the craft with the largest invisible workforce behind it.

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Hands working detailed hand embroidery on fine fabric
What we buy

What we buy in this line

  • ChikankariShadow work, jaali, murri and phanda stitches on fine cotton, silk and organza.
  • ZardoziMetal thread, coil, sequin and stone work in high relief.
  • Aari and maggamHook embroidery for dense, faster surface coverage.
  • Mukaish and badlaMetal-strip embellishment worked into the ground fabric.
  • Embroidered panelsSupplied as components into your own cut-and-sew.
  • Home textilesEmbroidered cushions, throws, bed linen and wall panels.
Acceptance criteria

What we fix before bulk

Hand-made goods are bought against an approved sample, not a drawing. That only works if what the sample is being judged on is written down before anyone starts.

Stitch vocabularyNamed stitches and their placement, held against an approved sample.
DensityStitches per unit area — the honest proxy for how much labour you are buying.
Thread and metalThread type, and for zardozi the metal content and tarnish behaviour.
Base fabricFibre, GSM, shrinkage and skew, measured before embroidery begins.
Placement registerTolerance in millimetres from a named datum.
Hand-feel and drapeAgreed against a physical standard — heavy work stiffens cloth.
Needle policyNeedle control and detection for anything worn next to skin.

Every criterion above appears in the inspection report as a pass or a fail, with the measurement beside it. Where a criterion is a judgement rather than a number, the judgement is recorded against a retained physical sample.

Risk & compliance

What we screen before a sample is quoted

Home-based outwork

Almost all chikankari is stitched in homes, by women, outside any audited factory. That is the structure of the craft, not a failure of it. We map the outwork chain and say plainly what can and cannot be verified.

Child labour

Household production is where child labour hides in this category. Where the chain cannot be mapped, we say so rather than issue a clean report.

Piece rates

A quotation well below the cluster norm is a finding about wages, not a win on price. We treat it as one.

Machine embroidery substitution

Computerised embroidery finished by hand and sold as hand work. Identified on the reverse of the goods.

Where this is made

Clusters we work for this line

LucknowBareillyFarrukhabadDelhi NCRMumbai

Lucknow is chikankari and Bareilly is zardozi. Both run on dense networks of home-based workers reached through contractors, which is exactly why the chain has to be mapped.

Related lines

The other hand-made skills

Pashmina & Fine ShawlsHand-made Banarasi & Silk BrocadeHand-made Patola, Muga & HandloomHand-made Kalamkari & Hand-Printed TextilesHand-made Bidriware & DhokraHand-made Temple Bronze & BrasswareHand-made Meenakari, Thewa & KundanHand-made Jaipur Blue PotteryHand-made Pichwai, Tanjore & MiniatureHand-made Papier-Mâché, Lacquer & WoodHand-made Kashmiri Carpets & RugsHand-made

Send us the sample. We will tell you honestly.

Whether we can source it well in India, what it should cost, and what could go wrong — before you commit to anything.

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