Sunaina came home late one day, after a tiring day from work. She was expected to lock herself up, like all usual days, and you’d find her watching Grey’s Anatomy while she had food that her mother would especially keep ready for her. But today was different. Today, she went straight to her mother’s room and stood in front of her mother’s wardrobe. Her eyes were wandering over every outfit in the wardrobe. She was searching for something. Something bright, something unique and beautiful. She went on shuffling between the clothes in the wardrobe until her mother walked upto her and asked what she was looking for. Sunaina looked at her mother with anxious eyes and told her that she forgot about her friend’s wedding ceremony which was the day after and needed something stunning to wear to the event.
Her mother calmed her down and before Sunaina would rant more about anything, she took her to the basement of their house. Her mother opened this big old brass trunk, which was ancestral, that contained her trousseau treasures and took out this solid sunny yellow suit. It looked extremely minimalistic and Sunaina rolled her eyes in disappointment. But then came out this utterly vibrant piece of fabric that was embroidered with the most bright colours. This was something strikingly beautiful. It was the veil of the suit, what is know as the the dupatta in India. The dupatta had flower like geometrical patterns heavily embroidered on it. It was so luscious and the embroidery had a gorgeous glistening effect to it. Sunaina was in a state of awe and was struck by the beauty of it. She had never seen her mother wear this outfit. Upon asking what it was called, her mother told her in was a Phulkari. It was a hand embroidered piece that was nearly 25 years old. It was made by Sunaina’s maternal grandmother and was presented to her mother at her wedding. Sunaina noticed the emotional significance attached to this attire and in that moment she knew this was exactly the kind of garment she was looking for to make heads turn. But also from that hour onwards, she only got more curious about this art and wanted to know all about it.
Upon researching , she learnt that Phulkari is a unique form of embroidery done by the women of Punjab. It is a form of art that ages back to the 15th century. Phulkari comes from the words phul meaning “flower” and “kari” meaning work, thus meaning ‘flower work’.
Deeply rooted in Punjabi life before the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan (which split the Punjab region), this tradition became a powerful symbol of Punjabi cultural identity. The exquisite embroidery was made in Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Sailkot, Lahore and Multan in Pakistan. Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Ambala in India.
Phulkari was purely a recreational activity performed by the women of the family. They embroidered dupattas, scarves, shawls, furniture covers or hangings. It was most popularly done by the grandmothers and mothers of daughters who were about to get married. It was a symbol of prosperity and happiness and ‘Suhag” which means marital well-being of a married woman. Phulkari was an extremely celebratory form of art. It was also used as gift for several occasions like auspicious events, weddings, baby shower and birth of a child.
Women of many religious groups—Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs (who consider the Punjab their holy land)—stitched phulkaris, with young girls learning needlework from older female relatives and friends.
Surprisingly, Phulkari embroidery was never done from the front of the fabric but done from the back, and eventually the design would come out beautifully in the front i.e. the right side of the fabric.
Traditional Phulkari was made of hand-dyed and hand-woven cotton spun cloth called
“khaddar”. The embroidery was done using high quality untwisted silk thread called “pat” in bright colors like red, green, golden, yellow, pink and blue.
Khaddar was mostly dyed in earthy and rustic colours like brown, maroon, red, black and blue.
Thus the pat would shine bright on khaddar once embroidered. A Phulkari in those days took anywhere between a month to a year to be completed.
Phulwari can grouped by their general designs and background colours.
Like there is Bagh which literally means garden, and this type of Phulwari is the most elaborate and expensive to make since it’s totally cover in embroidery and the base is not visible. This unique piece here is done using 7 different colours, each subtly contrasting. In this Phulwari, embroidery was done on 2 pcs of fabric that were then sewn together on their longest side. When you look closely you can see where the artist attached it at the centre, with an amazing skill, perfectly aligning the pattern.
Chope were Phulkaris that were made of zig zag stitches. They were embroidered by the maternal grandmother soon after a girl was born and presented to her at her wedding.
Thirma Phulwari was Mostly worn by the older women and widows. Bright colours were used in this type of phulkari and the white base colour looked like as if it was just the outline of the pattern.
Then we have the Bawaawn bagh. Bawan means fifty-two in Punjabi. In this kind of bagh, the base cloth was divided into fifty-two boxes with embroidery. Each of these boxes was embroidered with a different design made with bright colours. It shows the versatile talent and creativity of the women which explains the why Bawan Bagh is the rarest of all the Baghs and Phulkaris.
The Sainchi Phulwari were phulkaris that narrated many folk tales. Sainchi means ‘figuring a design’ and in this Phulwari motifs were represented from the rural life of Punjab. Human figures, animals, birds, ornaments etc were used as motifs for embroidery.
Many others including architecturally detailed Darashan Dwar which literally means ‘a doorway to the divine’ , were used for holy purposes. And glistening Vari da bagh, which was always made on a reddish-orange khaddar with a single golden and orange coloured pat, was presented as a gift to the bride by the mother-in-law when she entered her new home after her marriage.
Phulkari is one of the most imp parts of the Punjabi women’s material wealth. It’s like money in the bank. It also is a major part of their wedding and trousseau. It’si is used at several occasion during a Punjabi wedding like at the time of Mehendi (henna) ceremony and Haldi (turmeric) ceremony for the bride to seek shelter under it as a good omen and it’s also used to wrap the bride on her wedding day.
The Art then and Now
Primarily Phulwari was only done on khaddar but now it is done on a variety of fabrics such as chiffon, georgette, voil, chinon, crepe and synthetic because khaddar a coarse and heavy fabric. To obtain faster and cheaper production, a coarser and looser style of embroidery is being employed. With fast growing industries, schooling, lack of interest for manual work, profitability, etc. the textile industry today, is imitating this art with the help of machines.
Phulkari today is not as detailed or time consuming. Today the woman does the embroidery from the top of the cloth rather from the wrong side of the khaddar. Pat threads (self hand spun) by different range of fast coloured synthetic threads and slowly people are being replaced by machines.
One can now buy a machine done Phulwari for a much cheaper price. A lot of people today prefer machine embroidered Phulwari because of new designs and motifs that are being incorporated, also because it is low maintenance. What they don’t realise is that they loose the beauty of the actual art and textile.
But to keep up with the demand of the market many retailers have introduced machine Phulkari along side the original hand done ones. In the process of creating new every time, the exclusivity of the art is lost somewhere. Even though this art has a lot more potential, the demand domestically seems to be decreasing, where as internationally, Phulwari still does tremendously well.
Phulwari as an art has not been taken up by many designers but one such pioneer is Manish Malhotra. He launched his Autumn/winter 2013 inspired by Phulwari and baghs.
His idea was to focus on craftsmanship and showcase it at various fashion weeks by roping in celebrities, thus making the craft more popular. We saw a beautiful lineup of saris, anarkalis, floor length anarkalis and angrakhas in autumn colours like rich mustard yellow, navy blue, deep rust, earthy olive and intense red. And some beautiful bandhgalas and kurtas for men. His collection was also exhibited in In addition to stunning examples from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection in Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Also, when we think of Phulwari, we think of traditional attires but designer Kanika Goyal used the same art in a chic way in western wear, in her 2016 Winter Collection. Instead of using the traditional embroidery, she used the patterns of Phulwari using bugle beads.
The craft on a whole today is gradually fading away due to lack of knowledge about the craft. But initiatives like MELA PHULKARI, an event conceptualised by art historian and cultural theorist Alka Pande and organised by Kirandeep Kaur and Harinder Singh from Concept 1469 helps in reviving the beauty of this art and bringing in a fresh whiff of all the popular things from Punjab. The festival captures the essence of Punjab in its truest forms.
For people in India and Pakistan, Phulwari still holds a major significance. The art continues to play a role in many punjabi and Sikh weddings. And the embroidery technique and motifs have been re-envisioned in a multiple of ways.
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