Semal

Sitapur Road, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

Chikankari is considered the finest traditional embroidery of India, with its origin from the Royal State of Awadh. The "karkhanas", or royal workshops, created exquisite works of 'classical' Chikankari - intricate, yet delicate, white embroidery on very fine white muslin, as if pure moonlight is resplendent in all its beauty. Chikan is a gender sensitive craft. The women involved in the art have been exploited and paid poor wages for a long time. In the last two to three decades, a large number of intricate stitches have been lost and most of the women, particularly the ones who recently started working on the art, have been trained to work on six to seven stitches. With the commercialization of the art, the entire delicacy of the handloom fabric was lost to synthetic fabric over the last few decades.

Semal was created to revive the old traditional artwork of Chikankari, in all its glory, resplendent with the finest cotton materials, including very fine muslin, and ensuring all the women involved in building the garments are compensated adequately for their fine needle work.

Semal sources all our fabrics and raw materials locally. Our fabrics are made from Indian cotton. We do 100% of our manufacturing locally.
We are 100% natural. We are 100% Made in India.

Semal garments are available on bamboo cotton, muslin, mulmul, linen, Chanderi and Kota, with the brand specializing in modern classics. We focus on delicate, skin-friendly and top-quality natural fabric.

Semal also strives to innovate on the motifs to ensure the current generation of customers, from across the globe, feel comfortable wearing from the classical to the neo-trend designs, colours and embroidery.

Semal also delivers customized fabrics, like handloom and organic fabrics, customized designs, like Indian classical to western styles, and customized colours and motifs.

Semal also supports artisans of Bagru, Rajasthan and deals in handblock printed fabrics and dresses.