Lucknow has always lived in two times. There is the present-day city — bustling, mercantile, alive with tunday kebab and rickshaws. And then there is the older Lucknow — the Lucknow of the Nawabs, of imambaras, of qawwali floating across summer evenings, of zardozi workrooms hidden behind unmarked doors.
The Awadh collection is our love letter to that older Lucknow.
The Floral Language
The motifs that recur across the collection — the cusped arch, the trailing flower, the overlapping leaf — are pulled directly from the courtly gardens that Mughal architects laid out across North India. Look closely at the carving on the verandahs of the Bara Imambara, or the inlay work on a 17th-century jali screen, and you will see the same vocabulary that runs through every cushion, every lampshade, every framed panel.
Why Hand-Made Matters
Each Awadh piece is made by a single artisan or family — never assembled on a production line. The slight irregularities in the hand-embroidery are not flaws; they are what tell you that a human being held the needle. Mass-produced reproductions of zardozi exist, but they cannot replicate the depth that comes from forty hours of focused human attention.
To bring an Awadh piece into your home is to invite four hundred years of tradition to live alongside you.