Over time he has discovered a Lanvin double-breasted blazer in brown herringbone tweed and even a Carven jacket, both with intact Woolmark tags. “Imagine finding a niche French brand in a small part of Assam,” he says. “The best finds happen when you don’t force it.”
Karishma Sakhrani, a lifestyle content creator and development chef who divides her time between Mumbai and Dubai, describes street shopping as a kind of visual training. “When you’re surrounded by chaos, you learn to edit quickly,” she says. “You learn quality by touch. You learn proportion instinctively.”
Among her favourite discoveries are River Island cover-ups from Hill Road that she later wore to resorts in the Maldives and a gold-studded crop top she paired with a sari at a wedding, all purchased for a few hundred rupees. “If something costs almost nothing, you’ll take a risk with it,” she says. “Sometimes those risks become the pieces you wear for years.”
Yet the ecosystem that once produced these discoveries may be changing. Divya Balakrishnan, Vogue India’s associate fashion editor, remembers travelling across cities specifically to explore street markets.
“I used to hunt like a hound,” she says. “I used to travel to Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi for the markets. I’ve found coats, sweaters and tees from Ralph Lauren, Vivienne Westwood, YSL. You could always tell authenticity by the stitch or the button.”
Today, she notices a shift, with the markets lined with more of the same. “The same crop tops, the same oversized tees, the same floral maxis. It’s because they’re being made for the same brands, trends and people.” Quality has also changed, where earlier it was possible to uncover unusual pieces hidden among the piles, many stalls now prioritise quantity over craft. “You could really find treasures earlier,” she says.
Even so, the markets continue to attract loyal shoppers. Vohra, who now lives in Goa, still returns regularly. Fast fashion holds little appeal for her. Rabha has grown more selective with age but still sees value in the experience. “I shop slower now,” he says. A self-described “mix shopper”, he believes neither in thrifting as identity nor in the false opposition between conscious consumption and supporting new designers. He has learnt that there is a distance between the garment and the label, and that path he is happy to explore.
