Stories
Thrifting Boom in India: How Google Searches and Celebs are Driving Sustainable Fashion
- •Google Search data reveals that searches for how to thrift have surged by 850 percent in India over the past year.
- •Major cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad are leading the charge in the growing second-hand fashion movement.
- •Bollywood stars like Sonam Kapoor and Alia Bhatt are helping normalize vintage fashion and outfit repeating.
- •Popular items include vintage jackets, Y2K streetwear, baggy jeans, and heritage sarees repurposed for modern wardrobes.
- •Consumers are shifting away from fast fashion towards circular fashion, valuing individuality and clothing with a history.
Key Questions Answered
Google Search data reveals that searches for “thrifting” have reached an all-time high in India over the past year. Additionally, searches for “how to thrift” experienced an 850% surge, “thrift store near me” rose by 600%, and interest in “circular fashion” increased by 2,500%.
Strong interest in second-hand fashion is visible across multiple Indian metropolitan and tier-2 locations. Bengaluru leads the search trends, followed by Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, Dehradun, Guwahati, and Jaipur, with Guwahati and Jaipur showing breakout interest.
Bollywood figures have significantly reduced the stigma around wearing pre-owned clothes. Sonam Kapoor has publicly discussed collecting vintage garments and notably wore her mother's 35-year-old Gharchola saree, while Alia Bhatt has championed repeating outfits instead of treating fashion as disposable.
