Designer Niki Mahajan spoke to Divya Kaushik about reviving one of lucknow’s dying embroidery traditions. She will showcase her couture collection this August
Apart from their love for good food, music and architecture, India’s maharajas were famous across the globe for gaudy libaas (garment) that used gold, silver thread, along with precious and semi-precious stones. Their garments were often very luxuriant. Maharanis of Rajasthan wore lehariyas and bandhani odhnis, heavily embroidered with threadwork and gota. Clothes of lucknow rulers featured gold thread embroidery and heavy chikankari work with mukaish. There was embroidery that resembled zardozi and is known as badla. Barely a few artisans still do it.
Over time, as chikankari travelled far and wide, badla remained in lucknow’s narrow lanes, with the kaarigars of the erstwhile royals a dying breed.
Fashion designer Niki Mahajan, known for block printing and other techniques, has been working with lucknow craftsmen on a chikankari line for the western market as well. In the process she discovered badla. “Erstwhile royals wanted something to stand out in. So this work was done with real gold and silver thread. Chikankari was designed with mukaish, a stone that adds glitter. Badla is expensive and labour intensive. Hence the decline. I’ve decided to work on it for this very reason,” shared the designer.
Badla is embroidery where metal is first stretched to produce a thin, papery density. The metal strip is passed through flames for different colours and cut in fine wires.
These are inserted in fabric and beaten with a tiny hammer for hours, then embroidered.Mahajan set up a unit in lucknow and has employed people associated with this craft.
“We are using metal wires and special care is taken so the embroidery doesn’t pinch the skin. Earlier badla was done in such a way that the reverse side did just that. So maharajas wore inners of soft, thin fabric that protected against the rough embroidery. But now nobody thinks of wearing clothes in layers all the time. So we did badla work on garments in such a way the metal wires used don’t create this problem,” informed the designer.
She created a couture line with badla work and will display this during “a mega show during August.” It will be her comeback in couture.Since Mahajan has market overseas, she created contemporary designs using the embroidery minimistically.
“I have long tunics and dresses with badla work. It is also in demand in Middle East and Japan,” she said and added that most the work is on a base of pure fabrics like cotton and silk.