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.