The most widely practiced technique for hand embroidery in Punjab (Pakistan) is known as ‘Phulkari’ in the local language. This form of embroidery is traditionally used to decorate a garment, which can be a scarf or a shawl. Natural threads are used on coarse cotton fabric with folk patterns inspired by nature, birds and flowers being the most common elements. These garments used to...

To start with each design in our collection, we first gather inspiration from our surroundings. Our favourite media to sketch our ideas and designs in the studio is gouache. We hand paint each design using gouache on acid free paper. To explore the relation between different embroidery stitches, we create embroidery mock-ups in our London studio with contemporary hand embroidery techniques. Those hand embroidered...

Apart from the indigo, cotton, saltpetre and silk, what Lahore has been famous for centuries is, the hand embroideries. During the reign of the Mughal Emperor Akbar in the 16th century, his chronicler Abu Al-Fazl wrote this in the famous Ain-i-Akbari: “His majesty [Akbar] pays much attention to various stuff; hence Irani, Ottoman, and Mongolian articles of wear are in much abundance especially textiles...