What is Chikan ?
Chikan embroidery, renowned for its timeless grace and its gossamer delicacy, a skill more than 200 years old --- exploited, commercialised but not dead. In fact, the craft is alive and struggling to regain some of its former beauty and elegance. Chikan embroidery is done on fine cotton fabric. The garments – shirts, skirts, saris, and table linen are first embroidered and then finished/stitched. A study of the origin of Chikan reveals that this form of embroidery had come to India from Persia with Noor Jehan, the queen of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. The word Chikan is a derivative from the Persian word 'Chikan' meaning drapery. Some, however, insist that the craft migrated from Bengal. What we know is that Chikankari came to Oudh when Mughal power declined in Bengal and the artisans moved to the Oudh durbars, seeking employment and patronage. Chikan embroidery has a repertoire of about 40 stitches of which about 30 are still being used. These can be broadly divided into 3 heads - flat stitches, raised and embossed stitches, and the open trellis-like jaali work. Some of these have equivalents in other embroideries, the rest are manipulations that make them distinctive and unique. They cover almost all the embroidery stitches of the country and have interesting and descriptive names. The main flat stitches with their traditional names are Tepchi, Pechni, Pashni, Bakhia Khatao, khatava .The bolder or knottier stitches include the Murri, Phanda, and Jaalis.