Costumes and Crafts of Awadh

A sartorial legacy of Lucknow

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Valentina Trivedi in her mother's lehnga (1950/1975) by UnknownLucknow Bioscope

In the imagination of many, Lucknow is still a city of tehzīb, of refinement, with a certain delicacy and grace manifested in its language, dress and food. This culture, honed to a fine art in the years gone by, has changed today. Yet, there is a desire to cherish and preserve what remains and to find ways to engage the city’s inhabitants in this endeavour.

Indrani Singh and Tahira Rizvi at the Mahindra-Sanatkada Lucknow Festival (Will Change) by Mahindra-Sanatkada Lucknow FestivalLucknow Bioscope

A distinctive aspect of Lucknow life was its sartorial style. Costumes such as farshī pyjāmās, ġarārās, lehngās, cunā leheriyā dupaṭṭās, sārīs, ackans, cauṛā pyjāmās, dhōtīs, kurtās, angarkhās, ṭōpīs and sāfās continued to be donned by its inhabitants until the late 20th century. The city’s diverse citizenry wore fine muslin or silk, luxurious brocades, plain cottons and khadi.

Chiffon sari with heavy zardozi work on the border. (1900/1945) by Purva NareshLucknow Bioscope

Those who could afford it, embellished their costumes with cikankārī or with gold and silver embroidery in mukaish and zardōzī, accessorized with fine jewellery, ṭukṛī baṭuās and handcrafted footwear. These patrons supported the development of exquisite craftsmanship and creativity, making Lucknow workmanship and aesthetics much sought after.

Ravi Kapoor and Rajkumar Mohd. Amir Naqi Khan at the Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival (2012) by NajeebLucknow Bioscope

Keepers of family history and traditions over generations have shared their lovingly preserved treasures with us. Some costumes are more than a hundred years old, the base cloth now fragile but the colours and embellishments just as vibrant and enchanting as if they were made today. The Lucknow craftsperson’s skill, patience and eye for detail is evident, as is the mastery of its tailors and the artistry of its women who set the colour pallette for the costumes they made or commissioned.

Lucknow Bioscope presents selected objects representing a costume or craft, accompanied by old photographs and short films on the crafts and their practitioners in the 2020s. We invite you to experience the joy we felt as we traced, admired, and recorded this collection.  

The past is preserved through a glimpse of hereditary garments  in a traditional Lucknow home.

Credits: Story

Curation: Noor Khan & Saman Habib
Photography: Ayan Bose, Isha Singh, Tasveer Hasan, Apal, Najeeb Aziz
Team: Nagma Ehtesham, Nasreen Khan, Nimra Rizvi, Mariyam Imran, Saman Habib, Noor Khan
Text, Editing and Translation: Saman Habib, Noor Khan, Amit Misra, Sabiha Anwar, Isha Priya Singh, Waseem Ahmed, Ruth Chakravarty, Divya Joshi
Transliteration Standard:  ISO 15919 transliteration system for Devanagari 
Video: Aisha Khatoon, Parul Singh, Ayushi Gupta
Thanks to: Shehnaz Kidwai, Sahar Hasan, Afshan Durrani, Paola Manfredi, Mamta Verma, Bina Agarwal, Madhavi Kuckreja
Gracious Contribution by:
Amir Jamal 
Amir Naqi Khan 
Ankit Agrawal 
Arif Ansari
Bhavna Singh & Digvijay N Singh
Bina Agarwal
Faraz Ali Zaidi
Fatima Rizvi
Fauzia Yameen
Isha Priya Singh
Jaazbiya Khan
Kamal Misra
Mamta Verma
Mukul Manglik
Nabila Zaman
Purva Naresh
Ragini Pandey Misra
Rana Hassan
Rashida Zaheer
Rishad Rizvi
Sanjay Muttoo
Shahid Najeeb
Sheeba Iqbal Jairajpuri
Shipra Misra
Shruti Singh
Tazeen Hussain
Vaibhav and Vandita Kaul
Valentina Trivedi
Vasundhara Singh
Venkatash & Shyamji Srivastava
Zainab Hussain
Zehra Mehdi

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.