Chikan kurtaMen and women
Fine cotton, mulmul or georgette embroidered white on white. The summer garment of the region, and the one thing almost every visitor leaves with.
Worn for: Summer and formal
Awadh · Upper Indus–Gangetic Plain
Dress and textiles
Awadh's contribution to Indian dress is a technique rather than a garment: white thread on white muslin, worked so the pattern reads as a change in density rather than as colour. The court dress that carried it — the angarkha, the chikan kurta, the farshi pyjama — survives mainly as formal wear, but the embroidery outlived the court by two centuries and now employs more hands than any other craft in the region.
What is worn
AngarkhaMen
The cross-over court coat tied at the side, cut with a cusped chest opening in the Lucknow style — ancestor of the modern angarkha kurta sold everywhere.
Worn for: Ceremonial
Farshi pyjamaWomen
A trouser cut so full below the knee that it pools on the floor and is carried over the arm while walking. Nearly extinct outside weddings and revival collections.
Worn for: Formal, in Nawabi households
Sharara and ghararaWomen
Wide flared trousers joined at the knee with a decorative gota band, worn with a short kurti and dupatta. The gharara's knee seam is the identifying detail.
Worn for: Weddings, Eid
Do-patli dhoti and gamchhaMen, rural
A dhoti wrapped in the shorter two-fold village style, worn with a gamchha over the shoulder.
Worn for: Everyday
Weaves and textiles
Lucknow ChikankariGI tagLucknow, Barabanki, Unnao, Sitapur
A white-on-white surface embroidery of more than thirty named stitches, worked by hand and overwhelmingly by women in home workshops across the city and its ring of villages. Registered as a geographical indication in 2008.
Lucknow ZardoziGI tagLucknow
Metal-thread work in gold and silver wire, sequin and salma-sitara, couched onto silk and velvet on a wooden adda frame. Registered as a geographical indication in 2013.
Mukaish (badla)Lucknow
Flattened metal wire twisted through the cloth in tiny dots so the fabric glints without any surface embroidery — fardi ka kaam. Very few badla-workers remain.
KamdaniLucknow
Light metal-thread work on fine muslin, historically applied over chikankari on dupattas.
Jewellery
JhumkaNathBajubandKaranphoolAadSilver payal and bichhiya in the villages
Traditional dress of Awadh — garments, handloom weaves, GI-tagged textiles and jewellery. (9)