Meiraas Artisanal Chikankari:

The Falaknuma Collective is a renaissance Collection of Awadh. We wanted to create Chikankari designs & motifs that celebrate the lost culture of erstwhile Lucknow. We wished to capture the innate iconography of Awadh by creating wearable art pieces that speak a story of an era gone by.

The literature, poems, songs, travel stories, cinema, history, all centred around Awadh,  came together as a part of Meiraas Research to create this Signature Collective.

BISAAT: A GAME OF CHESS

Taking inspiration from celebrated Indian author, Munshi Premchand’s story, Shatranj Ke Khiladi, we created Bisaat.

Celebrated Indian Filmmaker, Satyajit Ray, also made a classic adaptation of this story in 1977.

Bisaat or the chessboard was the biggest conversation starter in Awadh; this past legacy has been recreated on this showstopper saree.

For this saree our team created the following:

1.) The Chess pieces have been researched painstakingly & created true to Nawabi Era, instead of popular Queen’s chess. We have created Badshaah (King), Wazir (Minister – no Queen then), Ghoda (horse), Haathi (elephant). 

2.) Once the idea was conceptualised, our team created original artwork, that was later drawn by hand on a block of wood by Block Making Artisans of Lucknow.

3.) The Artwork was then painstakingly engraved using 7 different kind of chisels, till the block pattern emerged. This was polished with peanut oil & dried in sun, ready to be used.

4.) This block was then brushed with Blue Dye & hand blocked on the fabric as per the design sensibility.

5.) The printed fabric was taken to our embroiderers who created this final masterpiece. Out of these, the Chessboard in the Paisley was the toughest to make, as the Chessboard is actually square, but the artisan had to learn how to skillfully create black & white chessboard in an abstract Paisley shape.

6.) The fabric used here was especially handwoven in Chanderi using a unique composition of Pure Mulberry Silk yarn & Mercerised Cotton. While most Chanderi is woven in the same composition, we differed the thread composition in Warp & Weft to create a cloud like soft and light, yet easy to manage fabric, suited for all weather types.

This saree befits a true connoisseur of Renaissance Wearable Art.