Buying a Suzani Jacket: How to Spot Authentic Hand Embroidery

A hand-embroidered Suzani jacket is an investment in a unique piece. To help you distinguish genuine craftsmanship from mass-produced goods, we have summarized the most important purchasing criteria.

1. Recognizing genuine hand embroidery

Machine embroidery is perfectly even – and that's precisely what gives it away. Genuine Suzani hand embroidery shows small irregularities: slightly different blossoms, lively thread tension, visible thread guidance on the back. For our jackets, an artisan often works for several days on a single piece.

2. Checking the material

High-quality Suzani jackets are made from dense cotton velvet with a soft feel and a cotton lining. The velvet should shimmer richly, not shine like synthetics. Embroidery threads made of cotton or silk age beautifully – polyester threads appear hard and flat.

3. Size and fit

Traditional Suzani jackets are open-cut and designed as one-size-fits-all – our models comfortably fit from S to XL (length approx. 65 cm, chest width approx. 60 cm). The casual cut is part of the look: the jacket falls straight and lets the embroidery take center stage.

4. Origin and fairness

Ask where and by whom the embroidery is done. We work directly with artisan families in India – fair pay and small editions are standard for us, not a marketing promise.

5. Realistic pricing

Days of handiwork have their value: genuine hand-embroidered velvet jackets start at around 80–90 euros. Significantly cheaper "Suzani" jackets are almost always machine-embroidered.

➜ Ready for your unique piece? Discover our hand-embroidered Suzani velvet jackets – each jacket a unique item, shipping in 2–4 business days.