Chikankari Mul Chanderi Dress Material White Black Floral

A unstitched dress material in crisp white 100 Mul Chanderi cotton hand embroidered in the heritage needle craft of Lucknow and worked here entirely in black thread Sprays of black daisy like flowers on leafy stems run down the neckline of the kameez with smaller black floral butis scattered over the body The sheer matching dupatta carries the same black butis fine golden zari stripes and knotted tassels at each end It comes as three unstitched pieces kameez fabric plain bottom and dupatta ready to be tailored to your size The black on white contrast makes the handwork easy to read Each flower is stitched in bakhiya or shadow work sewn from the reverse so the black thread sits softly beneath the sheer cotton rather than as a hard printed outline while the stems and leaves are drawn in fine tepchi running stitch and the flower centres knotted in murri one at a time Turn the cloth over and the back carries its own neat shadow and thread trails that two sided life is the giveaway of hand chikan a screen print or machine version is flat glossy and identical on every motif Chikankari has been worked in Lucknow since the Mughal era and was recognised as a Geographical Indication craft of the city in 2008 Block printer embroiderer and washer each handle the cloth over several days so slight shifts in spacing between one flower and the next are part of the making not a fault Black on white is the easiest pairing to wear office by day dinner by night Stitch it as a straight kurta or A line add the zari striped dupatta and let it sit with either silver or a single bold accent