Indian fashion designers, Sandeep Khosla and Abu Jani, design very gorgeous kurtas made out of chikan fabric. I’ll try to find and post some pictures of their kurtas that they designed for Bachchan family. I showed those kurtas to ammi and was told that such fabric is widely common in Lucknow, India.
We don’t have any relative in Lucknow and, therefore, I can’t ask anyone to be generous enough to shop for me. I have seen quite a few Pakistani ladies wearing kurtas made out of this but I have no idea where they are available in Karachi. Would someone know of any store that carries lucknwai chickan or ready-made kurtas?
Here are some pictures I was able to find of the kind of kurta/kapra I’m talking about:
a friend of mine brought back some chikan from lucknow for me. she got the best of what was available, however, while it looked nice from afar, the quality was really hideous.
a friend of mine brought back some chikan from lucknow for me. she got the best of what was available, however, while it looked nice from afar, the quality was really hideous.
That doesn't sound like the best of what was available then. There's a lot of cheap chikan on the market, with clumsy stitching and low quality embroidery. High quality chikan though looks stunning, even from up close...the embroidery is very delicate, and even an outfit covered in top to bottom in embroidery looks very subtle. However, its all hand embroidery, and so high quality chikan is actually fairly expensive.
I highly recommend a boutique called Prateeksha in New Delhi - but even a fairly simple suit with light embroidery is going to cost the equivalent of about $150-200 US, with some of the higher end bridal-type pieces going up to almost $2,000.
^Gina, there are some problems with the pic uploader that is why you can't see the thumbnails. People on Firefox would not be able to see the small 'x'. Google chrome and Internet Explorer both show small 'x' in place of the thumbnail and if you press the 'x' the photo will open in a new window.
My in laws live in Lucknow so I go there quite often and I have to tell you that the chikan material you're after is hideous. The quality of the material is horrible. Material in Karachi is way more superior and so much variety that my mother in law asks me to bring material for her from karachi.
The real chicken kari is done on very thin fabric so that kaam can be seen. I have seen some beautiful chicken kari kaam in India, you just have to go to the right place/person in lakhnow, there is one lady I know in delhi who gets it and does exhibitions, kind of expensive. The other normal chicken kari that is available on market is very mota mota kaam and fabric is bad, the kind that starts to lint after a wash.
Because chicken kari is very rare now, and I havent seen any REAL chiken kaam in pak to be honest.
Best best would be to send pakistani highest quality mal-mal(ask your mothers if you dont know what that is) or chiffon and get kaam done from India, if that is possible.
In pakistan the best haath ka kaam I have seen is from choti, dera ghazi khan, amazing stuff, if you can find the right person to do the right kind of kaam, the quality is amazing, the do single thred ka kaam and it is so delicate. I wish I could buy that from somewhere:( I am sucker for haath ki embroidery.
:k: