Embroidery is one of the oldest ways humans have found to make cloth beautiful — and few arts have changed as much, or as little, over the centuries. The stitches endure; the hands, the materials and the makers have travelled a long road.
✨ Fun fact: The very richest old embroidery was worked in real gold and silver wire, with seed pearls and even precious stones — which is why a single royal garment could be worth a small fortune in its thread alone.
The oldest stitches
Needle and thread are ancient companions. Long before machines, embroidery was how the wealthy set themselves apart — cloth worked with coloured silk and gold thread is described in the oldest texts and carved on ancient sculpture. From the very beginning, to embroider was to turn ordinary fabric into something precious.
The Mughal golden age
In India, embroidery reached a glittering height under the Mughals. The emperors kept whole imperial workshops — karkhanas — of master craftsmen, and brought with them the refined floral taste of Persia. This was the great age of zardozi, embroidery in real gold and silver wire, pearls and gems. It was also when the delicate white-on-white chikankari of Lucknow flowered. The flowering plant, the buti and the tree of life — motifs we still stitch today — entered Indian cloth in these years.
Embroidery across the land
Away from the court, embroidery grew quietly in every region, passed from mother to daughter. Kashmir worked fine sozni into shawls the world would covet; Punjab made its joyful phulkari; Bengal stitched old saris into new life as kantha; Gujarat and Kutch sparkled with mirror work; Rajasthan glinted with gota-patti. Each carried its own language of stitch and symbol.
The colonial turn
By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the world wanted Indian embroidery — above all the Kashmir shawl. But the same age brought hard change: industrial mills flooded the market, and as the old courts faded, many hand traditions lost the wealth that had sustained them.
Revival and recognition
The twentieth century fought back. After Independence, reformers — among them Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay — worked to rescue dying embroideries and find artisans new markets. Today many crafts are protected by Geographical Indication tags, from Lucknow’s chikankari to Kashmir’s sozni and Punjab’s phulkari.
Embroidery at Khinkhwab
We weave brocade by hand, but love embroidery just as dearly. Discover the shimmering gota and zardozi of our Aayna edit, and the airy grace of our Lucknawi chikankari.
Frequently asked questions
How old is the art of embroidery?
One of the most ancient decorative crafts — cloth worked with coloured and gold thread is recorded in the earliest texts, long predating any machine.
How did embroidery change under the Mughals?
Raised to a courtly art with imperial workshops. The great age of zardozi — gold-and-silver embroidery with pearls and gems — and of Lucknow’s fine chikankari.
Sources & further reading
Histories of Indian embroidery and the Mughal karkhanas; studies of regional Indian embroidery and twentieth-century craft revival.
