Zara Who? We Thrift Now
9 May 2025 3:21 PM IST
In 2019, The New York Times published H&M’s dirty secret. Every year, the Swedish multifashion brand discards billions of dollars worth of new and perfectly usable clothes to landfills across the Global South or ships them to be incinerated.
H&M is but one of many guilty clothing companies. Fast fashion brands – you know your Zara, Adidas and H&M – are some of the worst polluters on the planet. They regularly overproduce clothes by 30-40%, according to some estimates. That’s because in order to attract customers, these companies need to come up with ever-changing trends and styles, and they need to make their shelves appear full.
But now, some Indians are finding ways to avoid participating in ‘fast fashion’ — through thrifting. The practice of buying and selling second-hand things in the organised retail sector — that’s the definition of thrifting — became popular in the West in the 50s and 60s.
Even in India, people are establishing ‘thrift stores’, which buy and sell used clothing and accessories. In this episode, we’ll learn about the thrift industry in India. Who’s selling and who’s buying? Is thrifting really as sustainable as people think it is?
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TRANSCRIPT
Kudrat (Host): In 2019, The New York Times published H&M’s dirty secret. Every year, the Swedish multifashion brand discards billions of dollars worth of new and perfectly usable clothes to landfills across the Global South or ships them to be incinerated.
H&M is but one of many guilty clothing companies. Fast fashion brands – you know your Zara, Adidas and H&M – are some of the worst polluters on the planet. They regularly overproduce clothes by 30-40%, according to some estimates. That’s because in order to attract customers, these companies need to come up with ever-changing trends and styles, and they need to make their shelves appear full.
But now, some Indians are finding ways to avoid participating in ‘fast fashion’ — through thrifting. The practice of buying and selling second-hand things in the organised retail sector — that’s the definition of thrifting — became popular in the West in the 50s and 60s. In the 90s, it blew up even more, when websites like Ebay and Craigslist became popular.
Even in India, people are establishing ‘thrift stores’, that buy and sell used clothing and accessories, which they euphemistically call ‘pre-loved’ items. Sellers and buyers say they’re contributing to reducing waste and making the planet more sustainable.
My name is Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes — instead, we bring you deep dives into the ‘how’ and 'why' of consumer trends.
In this episode, we’ll learn about the thrift industry in India. Who’s selling and who’s buying? Is thrifting really as sustainable as people think it is?
Ridhima: I'm, I also go by Za. Uh, I think that's my art persona. Um, which gets to, uh, I'm a full-time artist.
Kudrat (Host): Ridhima studied Fashion at Parsons in New York, which is when she got into thrifting. Her classmates would wear Versace and Giovani off the runway. She couldn’t afford such expensive clothes, so, Ridhima said she would go to local vintage and thrift stores and buy unique items for cheap.
And then, so you know, since you've come back from New York, um, have you been thrifting in India as well?
Ridhima: Oh my God, so much. I think that is my. Only mode of consumption, very honestly. Yeah, I think, uh, I will go and buy like basics from like mainstream stores, but I really just like love getting like iconic, one of a kind pieces.
Yeah. And I like being able to like, dress differently. That is like a big aspect of my personality.
For Ridhima, finding unique pieces is her main motivation for why she shops second-hand. For others, especially younger Indians, wanting to be more sustainable is what drives them.
AK: And see the thing is when you're, even when you're making clothes, uh, it's like. They also have their own factories where you're like supposed to make it. And then that generates like a lot of waste, first of all.
And it also like pollutes and all these, like, there's chemicals that go into dying clothes, soft fabric softeners and stuff like that.
Kudrat (Host): AK is 16, and she’s in the 11th grade at St. Xavier’s college in Mumbai.
AK: instead of buying like new clothes all the time, you can buy something that's, that somebody once owned themselves.
Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. And do you see a lot of your friends, uh, thrifting as well? Yeah, actually I do. Like, we're more open to it for sure.
Kudrat (Host): Thrifting has been a thing in the West for several decades now–it’s now a part of the formal retail sector even in India. Thanks to people like Ridhima and A.
You might also remember the two Khan sisters who came on Shark Tank:
Kudrat (Host): The two sisters had a compelling pitch – they talked about how we Indians regularly reuse and recycle things. Have your older siblings ever passed on their clothes to you? Or perhaps you gave your old bag to your domestic help. Or maybe she made a mop out of your torn shirt – all those are examples of you engaging in the circular economy.
Companies like Bombay Closet Cleanse are just trying to formalise that practice.
ThredUp, a global thrift retailer, published a report last year saying the worldwide thrift market grew by 18% in 2023. The report predicts that the second-hand apparel market will grow three times more than the new apparel market, and will reach a market cap of 350 billion dollars by 2028.
The second-hand clothing market in India is growing too, though, despite people like Ridhima and AK who are so passionate about it, the truth is, it’s not growing at the same rate as it is in the West.
The Financial Express published an article in March which reported that several online and offline thrift stores opened then shut down in India. The stores that closed were Relove, by New York-based Kirti Poonia, Saritoria, a South Asian ethnic wear resale platform, and the US-based social commerce marketplace – Poshmark. There are a few reasons why that happened:
For starters, selling second-hand clothing is not easy. It requires a large investment of labor: you need people to collect the clothing and clean them properly. Some items might even require hand-washing or dry-cleaning. You also need to invest in marketing and it takes serious marketing chops to make used products look good.
And then, there’s problems that are particular to selling cheap or mid-range second-hand clothing in India.
Prabodh Mishra: uh, and in a production oriented country like India. And this will be valid in other places as well, like China, Vietnam, and other manufacturing countries.
You will find that thrifting as an industry will have certain challenges which it's not facing in developed economies or retail based economies like the US and Europe.
That was Dr. Prabodh Mishra, Associate Professor of Fashion Communication at Pearl Academy of Design.
Dr. Mishra told The Signal Daily that the data shows that thrifting, defined as selling and buying second-hand clothing in the organized retail sector, won’t grow as much in India as elsewhere. The reason for that is we have a large unorganized retail sector where clothes are available for cheap.
For example, in Delhi, there’s your Sarojini and Janpath, where you can buy export rejects and counterfeits for throwaway prices. If I can get a new export-reject Nike product or a counterfeit Zara dress for quite cheap, why would I spend money to get the same thing second-hand?
Kudrat (Host): So, cheap to mid-range thrifting, despite all the hype right now, probably won’t grow as much in India as it will grow globally. As a poor country that manufactures textiles, we have more than enough counterfeits and export rejects and unbranded clothing that’s new and cheap.
The one area that second-hand items will probably do better than most is the luxury segment.
Prabodh Mishra: I think, uh, luxury products maybe thrifted slightly better in India. That is a possibility.
Okay. So, 'cause there we are, uh, I mean designer, designer wear Yeah. Designer there. We may, we may be okay because a lot of designer wear does not reach, uh, mass production brands too. Yeah. So that is one. Yeah.
And the second part is that in the designer category, we are quite okay to. Take up a Thrifted product.
Okay. Uh, no, from a consumer behaviour standpoint, yeah. Got it.
Kudrat (Host): From a consumer behaviour standpoint, why is that?
Prabodh: Uh, one, because, uh, if I am taking up a pre-owned premium brand, I kind of, uh, it makes a less attractive value proposition. Uh, so, uh, just in terms of social projection. However, let's say if I am taking up a pre-owned designer wear, it still works out for me as a, as a social image projector.
Okay?
Kudrat (Host): So the image of, for saying I, I'm wearing secondhand, uh, Nike is a lot worse than saying I'm wearing secondhand Louis Vuitton.
Prabodh: Yes, exactly. (16:17 – 17:47)
Kudrat (Host): The Financial Express report I mentioned earlier also found that stores selling luxury pre-loved items are doing much better than others. There’s Confidential Couture, which grew 40% right after COVID and is now growing at a rate of 25%. And then, there’s My Almari, which is processing over 150 orders per month. They said that sometimes they’re even selling products for a lot more than what their original owners bought them for. That’s because luxury items actually gain value as their original company stops making them, and they technically become vintage. It’s not only in tier 1 cities that this luxury segment is growing, but also in Tier 2 cities like Indore, Imphal, Chandigarh and Coimbatore.
There’s a lot of hype around thrifting right now, especially on social media. But, realistically speaking, it’s only the luxury segment that’ll grow in India, and not the cheap or mid-range second hand clothing segments.
The other caveat is that thrifting, luxury or otherwise, may not be as green as we might think.
You see, making clothes is cheaper than it ever was. As a result, we’re making a lot more and buying a lot more clothes than ever before. And so, even if some of us buy and sell some clothes at thrift stores, that doesn’t really change the societal reality of overproduction and overconsumption. It also doesn’t change fast fashion’s business model–of constantly putting out new styles and colors and trends and what not.
Prabodh: The second reason is that the major need for sustainability in fashion arose from the idea of, uh, not, uh, of fast fashion inculcating a sense of feeling in consumers that they need to buy more.
Hmm. And the whole idea of hedonic shopping, that shopping is the thing that would give them pleasure. Hmm. So probably when you are, uh, upset you shop. Hmm. When you're happy you shop. Yeah. When you are, uh, when you have achieved something. You shop, so the celebration is also shopping. Yeah. The, the doom is also shopping, right?
The So right from brief to happiness for any particular course you end up shopping fashion. Yeah. And this sentiment was something which came up via fast fashion. (27:29 – 28:20)
Kudrat (Host): Once upon a time, we got clothes only when we needed them. Now, shopping is so much a part of our culture that there’s even something called ‘window shopping,’ meaning the act of going to stores not to buy anything, but just to check stuff out.
Doctors have even diagnosed people with an “addiction” to shopping. So there’s people out there who are chemically addicted to the dopamine hit that shopping gives you.
I personally think it’s cool that organized thrifting is taking off in India, and that some people are driven to it because they want to be more sustainable. But, when we take a good hard look at the fashion industry as a whole, and our attitude toward shopping, it’s obvious that we have a massive beast of a problem at hand.
That’s all for today. You just heard The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the ‘how’ and 'why' of consumer trends. The Core produces The Signal Daily, follow us wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts.
