House of Chikankari

Our co-founder Poonam Rawal, a textile expert, has long created ethnic clothing for herself and her loved ones. Her wardrobe is overflowing with clothing that has been painstakingly hand-embroidered in Chikankari, and her daughter Aakriti Rawal has unavoidably inherited this devotion. Poonam Rawal is the brand's textile heritage anchor. A lifelong Chikankari enthusiast who personally collected and wore hand-embroidered garments for decades, she brought the craft knowledge, artisan relationships, and authenticity validation that no amount of market research could substitute. Aakriti Rawal is the commercial and digital architecture of House of Chikankari. She studied in London and graduated in 2018, then worked at another startup before co-founding House of Chikankari with her mother during the pandemic. Her London business education and startup experience gave the brand its D2C digital strategy, marketing sophistication, and the ability to position a GI-tagged traditional craft.

House of Chikankari is India's most authentically GI-certified online Chikankari fashion brand, producing hand-embroidered ethnic garments crafted by women artisans from Lucknow's traditional Chikankari community. Chikankari is a form of embroidery that originated in Lucknow, India, over 100 years ago. It is a delicate and intricate form of hand embroidery that involves using white cotton or silk threads on fine muslin or cotton fabric to create intricate designs. Begum Noor Jahan, the wife of Mughal emperor Jahangir, was a patron of this art form and helped spread its popularity all over the world. The Indian government has granted Chikankari a GI tag, which means that only products made in a specific region and using specific techniques can be called Chikankari.