The latest brag in fashion? A secondhand luxury bag

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₹4 lakh.) Since that May two years ago, Sabharwal has only scouted for and carried secondhand luxury bags. She has spent from ₹1-15 lakh on a pre-loved luxury bag. “I buy one, carry it for two-three months and then sell it (on a pre-loved website, with a profit of 10-15%, and sometimes even at a loss, depending on the bag’s condition)." Sabharwal recently sold a small Bottega Veneta Jodie for around ₹3 lakh; she had bought it from a secondhand luxury platform for ₹3.2 lakh.

“Some bags that I really like, I keep them; the rest I sell. I don’t mind the small losses since each piece is unique, some are not even designed anymore." Sabharwal is part of a growing community of luxury shoppers in India who believe owning used, secondhand or pre-loved—whatever you chose to call it—clothes and accessories, especially bags, is more of a brag than something to whisper about. Considering how today’s shopper is trying to stick to ever-changing trends, while thinking consciously about their buying choices, the stigma attached with used goods has, by and large, disappeared.

Homegrown platforms offering pre-loved luxury goods have seen the shift from close quarters. When Anvita Mehra and Jharna Gianchandani were planning to start one such website 10 years ago, the secondhand luxury market didn’t really exist in the country. “It was a big concept in the West and some Indians were buying secondhand goods abroad.

So, we tried experimenting here with some tweaks," says Mehra. They chose the brand name Couture Confidential, since “shoppers here were not ready to reveal that they own secondhand luxury." Today, the market is completely different, explains Gianchandani. “People actually tag us on social media when they buy from us, which wasn’t