Traditional Lucknowi embroidery called chikankari has changed fortunes of the unorganized industry. During festivities like Diwali and Id they are in great demand.
Dame Judi Dench wore a chikankari outfit for the Oscars in 1999 and made it international.
Today for embroidering a shirt, craftsmen can earn Rs300 and for an all-over embroidered saree it could be Rs6,000 and above.
Initially, designers like Meera and Muzaffar Ali put chikankari on the ramp while now Rohit Bal and Rajesh Pratap Singh have started giving it sufficient precedence.
Lucknow has more than 10,000 chikankari shops, the sales doubling during the festive season and has an increasing demand in international markets, providing about 40 percent of the chikankari output to markets like UK, Dubai and Russia.
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