Discover how Indian thrift stores are transforming waste in India's landscape. Explore sustainable change with Brown Living.
Alone, India accounts for 8.5% of global textile waste. While the waste percentages are soaring there’s another trend that’s catching people’s eye, Thrifting. Instagram has seen a sudden increase in online thrift stores in the year 2020.
A Thrift store is a place that sells second-hand (used) clothes, shoes, books, etc. And, Thrifting is a concept that ensures any product mentioned above is used to its full capacity before ending up in a landfill. Thrifting offers a unique solution to controlling clothing waste by making closets greener and circular.
The resale market has been developing at an exponential rate all across the world. According to a survey issued in 2020 by thredUp, one of the world's leading fashion resale platforms, the resale market was valued at $28 billion (about $2 trillion) in 2019. By 2024, this is predicted to reach $64 billion. Though there is no official data available for India, a search on Instagram for "#thriftindia" yields over 6.25 lakh results.
Scroll through a handful of Thrift Stores that are bringing a change in the country:
BOMBAY CLOSET CLEANSE
A women-run thrift & consignment store with a mission to make circular fashion a way of life. From organizing thrift pop-up experiences, collaborating with like-minded brands, and creating fun, upcycled products to donating clothing to those in need, they are constantly thinking of new ways to create less waste and prevent clothing from reaching our mounting landfills.
Address: Shop No 10, Silver Pearl Building, Waterfield Road, Bandra West, Mumbai
CURATED FINDINGS
Curated Findings is an online Thrift and Consignment Store established in January 2020 as an attempt to renew the soul of creation of fashion and textile products. The aim is to curate hand-picked thrift and rare fashion items and home accessories and to provide an affordable sustainable alternative to buying fast fashion. They are spreading awareness about waste & trying collaborations to spread more of it.
Phone: +91 9711525933 | Email: care@curatedfindings.co
KIABZA
It is a Mumbai-based Online thrift store. It provides clothing donations for women and youth at shelter homes, & has partnered with “Vidya”, and "Udaan" who help the vulnerable members of underprivileged communities for women, youth, and children, in India.
Phone: +918693881100 (Buyers), +918591469986 (Sellers) | Email: support@kiabza.com
GOOD KARMA TREASURE SHOP
It promotes sustainable fashion and shopping while also greatly reducing textile waste by encouraging #treasureshopping (reuse & recycle) of pre-loved, gently loved, or unused items. In addition to mindful living, they also donate 25% of our proceeds to handpicked Goan charity organizations, raising funds and awareness for a unique cause every month.
Address: Panjim, Goa
Phone: +917972246605 | Email: goodkarma.treasureshop@gmail.com
RELOVE
It is a Mumbai-based online store that resells India’s leading luxury designers’ & brands’ clothes. It is working with 50+ brands and growing for their resale. They believe that a return policy is not enough we need a resale policy.
Phone: +9193210 50103 | Email: contact@relove.in
Other Instagram Shops:
Apart from these purpose-driven thrift shops, there’s a long list of other thrift shops from which we’re putting out a few trustable ones here:
Thrifting is here to stay! More or less Indians believed & followed the concept much before the word became a trend.
Save Money + Save Environment=Thrift!
