A Guide to Lajpat Nagar Central Market

When I moved to India, I was completely clueless about where to get anything. For most of the things, the answer is quite simple: Lajpat Nagar Central Market! It’s one of the markets which I would definitely recommend to any tourists to experience a colourful and buzzing Indian bazaar. But how to find anything in this buzzing maze?

Now an expert whom even my Indian friends ask for advice now and then, I would like to make your life easier by sharing my wisdom. 🙂

To be honest, now that I earn well, I stopped going there for clothes. Most of all, I generally advocate a more sustainable lifestyle and decluttering. I prefer FabIndia and some other shops as they have high-quality organic materials. But when it comes to any decoration, household items, fabrics or tailors, this is still my place of choice!

What do I get there?

You can find almost everything there:

• Ethnic wear (casual or party wear) in all price and quality categories
• Shoes
• Jewelry (especially the “bling-bling” ones for parties or weddings)
• Fabric/Textiles (Kurta material and regular fabric)
• Bags and other accessories
• Everything for your home (kitchen, dining, bed & bath, electronic devices etc.)
• Tailors
• Mehendi Artists

What I would not recommend it for is western clothes, they have mostly stuff with very badly and cheaply looking designs. The best market for those is Sarojini Nagar, which I will definitely also cover here 🙂 Lajpat Nagar Central Market is most of all a paradise for street shopping and is the first place I have in mind whenever I need wedding outfits.

How do I get there and at what time does it open?

There are several options depending on where you live. Lajpat Nagar has a Metro station (Violet and Pink Line). In case you live close to the yellow line, I would recommend taking an auto or cab instead. If you prefer the metro, you will soon be able to change from INA into the Pink line, once it’s fully operational.

If you live somewhere around Lajpat Nagar, you can easily take a Cycle Rickshaw. There is parking also, but with some space issues during peak time and the 100 % chance of getting stuck in a traffic jam, I would avoid coming by car.

The stores open around 11am–12pm and it’s always recommended to come a bit early to avoid the peak hours. Also, the first sale of the day is seen as auspicious – awesome for all early shoppers! They usually tell you that you are the first customer even, so try to bargain a bit more to get an even better deal 🙂

Where to find what

The market seems to be very confusing when you don’t know it. I have made a map for you where you can generally find certain things (a little noobish maybe, but still a map 😀 I’ll try to make a nicer one someday).

It’s actually quite easy: imagine Lajpat as a big, slightly unsorted department store. There are certain areas where you mostly find certain kinds of products, like jewelry and bangles at the Market Road, kurta fabrics in the west, fabrics in general in the south-west, shoes in the very east (and 2 shops in their parallel street in the very west). Of course, you find shoe shops also at the rest of the market but most of them and especially the proper shops are concentrated in one area. Tailors you find on the other side of the road in the north, opposite KFC. In the middle of the market, there is a mix of everything, kurtas, clothes in general, bags, shoes etc. On the map, I have only marked places where you find certain things in particular.

Here is another map with my favourite places 🙂 Please note that the location is not always 100 % correct but you’ll at least know where to go.

Prices & Quality

At my first job with the NGO, I earned hardly any money, so going to Malls with all their more expensive shops wasn’t really an option. Like many firangs, I quickly fell in love with ethnic wear, hence Lajpat was the place to be.

In the first few months, I also used to live very close by in East of Kailash (it’s just a 10 min Cycle Rickshaw ride away), so I came almost every weekend. After some time, I became the Lajpat expert of the office and people even called me sometimes to ask where to get certain things from there.

I want to give you an overview of the price ranges of the different products as I know it is very hard, in the beginning, to judge whether a price is OK or way too high. In any case, make sure you bargain hard. The best bet is to get up as if you want to leave (sometimes even repeatedly). Once they stop going down with the price, you know you have reached the limit.

Firang Tip: Listen to the discussions with other customers: if they are bargaining, which price the vendors tell them and for which price they are buying it eventually.

One piece of advice in advance: Whatever you are planning to buy, check the price online (Flipkart, Amazon, or for clothes, pages like Myntra.com) to get to know the market price. The prices should generally be cheaper at Lajpat than online.

If it’s something you have never bought before and don’t know the retail price, they can cheat you a lot. When it comes to electronic devices, I have made the experience that the big electronic store Chroma had often better deals than you get online, especially their home brands.

Whatever it is you want to buy, always do some research before you go out to buy something. There is nothing more unsatisfactory than to know that you have been cheated on the price or to find a better offer later on (at least I feel this way).

Clothes

This market used to have a very bad influence on me: it sometimes took less than 5 minutes for me to buy stuff, especially since these cheap 100 INR offers were just too tempting. I once bought 4 pants for summer for only 500 INR in total! They are super airy, comfy, and look pretty decent.

These 100-INR-guys are mostly the ones who have no proper shop and stand in front of a pile of clothes. You can hear them yelling from quite far already, a constant stream of something like “saur rupee, saur rupee”, meaning 100 INR. They mostly sell cheap Kurtis (which I used for home, Holi, or now and then even outside if it was nice enough) or pants.

The prices for a cotton salwar-kameez (= top and bottom) start around 350 INR, especially in the street shops. Don’t expect the best quality and designs for this price though! The price depends on the kind of work, quality of the material, and embroidery. You can’t expect everything to be super cheap, especially if it’s made of high-quality materials and/or embroidery.

There are lots of nice casual kurtas in the street shops for only 350 INR which you can match with a cotton churidar or leggings for only 100 INR, mostly available in the same shop (there are a lot of mix and match shops). Most shops have the same prices and often sell the same designs, so there won’t be much of a difference between different vendors. The good thing for foreigners is that we can test this way if they tell us the correct price. One of the shops is in the middle of the market. Kurtas start around 200 INR there.

There are some shops where you can’t bargain and the prices are fixed. Mostly they have a signboard somewhere saying fixed prices. In this case, the prices are mostly written somewhere, either on a price tag or on the shelves.

Western clothes can start at 100 INR. There are only very few shops with better quality T-shirts, e.g. Jack&Jones (with small defects) which start at 350 INR. Make sure you check the seams and the whole shirt in general for mistakes. Sometimes you can make really good deals there. You can find a much wider variety and hundreds of shops with western clothes at Sarojini Nagar Market, so rather check this out if you want to get these kinds of clothes.

Better quality dresses you find in shops like Meena Bazaar, Sabhyata, Westside, CnM etc. If you are looking for wedding outfits, you find a whole lot of variety there. Cheap suits and sarees start at 700 INR (which I would personally not buy). For a better quality, I would always recommend shops like Meena Bazaar or Malhotra’s, the latter, especially for Lehengas (consisting of a long skirt, a blouse, and dupatta) and Anarkali suits (dress like suits). There are some other nice shops which are mostly located on the market road where the bangle and jewelry shops are. I personally bought all of my best sarees and suit materials from Meena Bazaar. Try to come during a sale, the prices are ridiculous!

One thing you MUST do is to try on some sarees, which is an experience by itself! They drape it around you so that you can see how it would look. (Most of the following pictures are from 2013 when my friend and I were frequently on saree shopping sprees 😀 )

Firang Tip for wedding shopping

How much you should spend depends on the type of wedding you go to. It’s quite logical actually but since every Indian wedding outfit seems to be so “blingy”, it’s harder to judge than in Europe.

If it’s an upper-class wedding, I would obviously buy a more expensive outfit. The price depends on the kind of dress you want to wear. Lehengas and Anarkali suits are usually more expensive than sarees and salwar suits. If it’s a cheaper wedding, you don’t need to spend so much of course. I once went to a wedding and didn’t know that it was rather a cheap one and felt quite overdressed. For South Indian weddings you should maybe also cut down on the bling and maybe go with a rather sober silk saree. I’d recommend asking someone about all of that before going shopping. It also depends a lot on how well you know the person who’s getting married. For close friends, you can dress a bit more lavish, for acquaintances and colleagues rather go with a plainer outfit.

Ready-made blouses

You have a saree and want a new blouse for it? There are many shops where you can buy ready-made blouses which you simply need to alter.

Fabrics

You find a lot of fabrics in Lajpat Nagar, especially suit material. There are two different versions: unstitched and semi-stitched. You find a wide variety of casual suit materials as well as more lavish ones with bigger embroidery. The material comes as a set consisting of the fabric for kurta, bottom as well as a dupatta. You can be sure that the colours are matching perfectly. The cheapest cotton material for a casual salwar-kameez starts around 300 INR.

If you’re looking for pure fabric, there is also a lane in the south-west of the market where you find textile rolls of all kinds of material. Just tell them how much you need and they will cut it for you. You find a great shop with a more modern variety of designs on the Market Road when walking on the left side towards Lala Lajpat Rai Rd (just put “Naturals” in Google maps).

Shoes

The cost of shoes depends of course on the kind of shoe and quality. Plastic flip-flops start at 100 INR, Indian leather Juttis around 300 INR (they will always start at 600 or more!).

There are a lot of shoe shops where the shoes are simply hanging outside, a pin or needle in the sole to hang it from a grid. These are mostly cheaper and start around 300 INR. depending on the style. Warning: they don’t last very long in most cases.

In proper stores, where you also find the shiniest “bling-bling” shoes you will ever see in your entire life (especially for weddings), the prices usually start around 500 INR. They are still not everlasting but will survive a season. A better quality of shoes you find in stores like Bata where it starts around 700 INR. They have shops all over Delhi, often with different varieties in each shop. Hushpuppies has a store there too.

Accessories

There is a wide variety of handbags, clutches, and wallets, which start around 200 INR. Bigger bags can cost up to 1500 INR. depending on quality and size. Lajpat is especially good for clutches for weddings, which you can match to your outfit. If you are looking for belts, the cheapest start around 80 INR (plastic!).

Jewellery

If you just look for simple, casual earrings, they start around 50 INR. If it’s about costume jewelry for parties or weddings, it completely depends on the type and quality. There is a wide variety which is mostly made of either painted metal or coloured stones, sequins or (fake) pearls starting around 200 INR for the simpler and painted ones. The better ones can cost up to 1000 INR. Often there are sets of matching earrings and necklaces, sometimes even rings.

If you want real gold, there are some smaller jewelers also. For this kind of jewelry, I would not recommend Lajpat Nagar but bigger jewelers like in South-Ex, Old Delhi, or Karol Bagh.

Every ethnic outfit needs bangles of course, which are available in different colours and types: silver, glass, lacquer, white metal, oxidized silver, and plastic, either casual or shiny and glittery for weddings. Best is to bring your outfit or jewelry to the shop so that they can match it. It’s fun to watch them create different designs out of a huge variety of bangle types. They can be plain but also have small up to bigger stones on it. Also always make sure you try them as there are different sizes (the shopkeepers usually make you try one though and anyways have an eye for it, which size you need). Plain and cheaper bangles start around 50-100 INR. After some time you will have enough of the gold/silver bangles with stones at home and only need to buy bangles with the matching colour of your outfit instead of a whole new set.

Tip: I know a couple of people who react allergically to the painted metal bangles. If this should be the case with you, don’t worry: try glass bangles instead.

Sunglasses

It will happen at least 2 times that a guy will offer you cheap sunglasses. Mostly they are not even bad, I used to have a whole collection of them. They will start very high but just insist on 150 INR. If they don’t agree just continue to walk, they will come running after you.

For a better quality, I can only recommend Lensekart. Good quality and nice designs for a rather good price. They have an online shop too.

Bed & Bath 

Bed Sheets start at 250 INR, but frankly speaking from foreigner to foreigner: you will most likely not like them. The cheap ones are stiff and often a bit rough, the patterns are often ridiculous. It’s sometimes very hard to find a plain one or a nice pattern. Always make sure you feel the material and look at the colour in case it is packed.

There are cheaper shops within the market (mostly in the South of the market), but also fancier shops where you get better quality and nicer patterns. They are much more costly though.

Just a side note: If it’s about the price, I personally prefer to order bed sheets online on Flipkart or Amazon as there are really nice and cheap offers, especially for queen-size beds. The only problems I had is that they sometimes didn’t deliver the correct colours and of course, you can’t feel the fabric before.

If you need towels, they start around 100 INR.

Furnishings

Curtains start at 250 INR but again it all depends on quality and kind of material. The cheapest models have very funny or old-fashioned-looking patterns. They also offer cushions and cushion covers, blankets, quilts etc. in the shops. There are very cheap offers for sets of 5 cushions for only 250 INR! There are definitely better places for this with more modern designs.

Kitchen & Household items

There are many shops for household items and often half of the products hang outside. These shops are much cheaper than malls but the quality is not the best of course. For glasses and plates, I can recommend it though. the prices are much cheaper and the quality isn’t bad at all. I always recommend checking the price online, either at Flipkart or Amazon, before buying anything.

Decor

There are a couple of shops where you find nice decor items, from artificial flowers (sometimes even nice ones) and vases (usually not so nice ones 😀 ), decorative bowls, etc. I have two favourite shops: One Frame shop has amazing hand-carved frames in different sizes and colours. In the other one, just a few shops next to it, you find beautifully hand-painted items like side tables, elephants of wood and metal, wooden trucks and auto-rickshaws, etc. I marked them on the map with my favourite shops for you. 🙂

Bamboo Furniture

Be it that you’re on a low budget or want some cute and most of all eco-friendly furniture, you can check out one of the many bamboo furniture stalls throughout the city. There are two in Lajpat Nagar which sell the same stuff, so it’s always a good idea to check out both to compare the prices. You find stools, one-seaters, shelves, trunks, and even a bamboo chaise lounge there! Perfect for balconies or for those of you who are only here for a short time and need some basic furniture.

Just a bit of advice for the firang girls out there… 

If you are new to India, do yourself a favour and don’t just buy the first thing you see. Feel the fabric, look at the seams and compare it with others. Most of the shops have very similar designs and if you like something a lot, you can still go back later to buy it. Most importantly, try to get a feeling for the style itself as it is completely different compared to what westerners are used to wearing. Hence we tend to make the funniest styling mistakes, e.g. combing funny-looking colours, combining too many crazy patterns, matching kurtas with the wrong kind of bottoms, or simply not picking suiting colours for our skin tones.

Just look at Indian women, what they wear and how. You will notice that colour of the bottoms always matches with one of the colours you find in the kurta. Also, check out what kind of bottoms women wear to which kind of kurta. In bottoms, there are salwars, patialas, churidas, leggings, long skirts, wide-leg pants and many more. When it comes to tops, there are long, medium, and short kurtas, the dress-like Anarkali and more.

How people match it as well as length and type of kurta and bottom often depend on what is trending these days. Also, be careful with colours. Just because you are in India, it doesn’t mean that all of a sudden every colour suits you. Since India is known as colourful, many people seem to think that they also have to dress in all colours of the rainbow. Indians can wear bright colours much easier, I guess because of their skin tone and especially their amazing hair (seriously, just look at them!). They can wear the brightest pink and still look fabulous, but if a white blonde girl does that, she might just look like a Barbie doll. So be a bit more aware of what colours suit you best, same as you do with your regular clothes.

Firstly, try to get a feeling for the fashion first before you buy your first ethnic outfit there. For starters, I would always recommend FabIndia where the store assistants have a better fashion sense and can give you proper advice. The colours and patterns are more subtle too. Street vendors will tell you that everything you touch looks amazing on you, has exactly the right size for you, and is the best quality, just to make a sale. Even in better shops like Meena Bazaar, the salespersons often either had a horrible taste or – what is more likely – simply want to sell you as much as possible, doesn’t matter if it suits you or not. Just follow one simple rule: never believe them 😉 If you feel good in it and like it – great, buy it!

Where to eat?

There is, of course, a lot of street food like momos, golgappa, chaat etc. which starts at 20 INR. If you want more than a small bite, there are some bigger stalls which serve dishes like choley bathure (chickpea curry with a huge fried bread, which is freaking awesome!).

Firang Tip: Avoid street food in summers, especially momos, if you don’t want to get the so-called “Delhi belly”. There is no cooling and the food can get spoiled very fast in the heat of the burning sun. And street vendors aren’t known for being the most hygienic people… 😉

Especially for foreigners who are not used to street food/spicy food or really would like to have something continental for a change, there is a McDonald’s and a KFC. 😉 This McDonald’s rescued me in the beginning when I had phases where I could not see Indian food anymore 😀 I would generally recommend other places to eat though, it would be a pity not to try the most of all those amazing restaurants throughout the city! And Khan market isn’t too far away for a great meal after shopping 🙂

One important tip: For more sustainable travel, always bring your own water bottle, in summer maybe even two as it gets incredibly hot. This goes for all the trips you make.

What else should I know?

Where can I get my newly bought suit stitched?

There are lots of tailors in Lajpat. My favourite one is Lavanya Ladies Tailoring, just around the corner of Meena bazaar, opposite a small park. They make good quality stuff for reasonable prices and stitched all my suits and blouses for me. I marked the location on the map with my favourite shops.

I always loved how we could somehow understand each other despite the language barrier. He understood enough of my English and I enough of his Hindi so that it was never an issue 🙂 I seriously miss this, now that I live in Goa…

One tip for stitching blouses and suits: First of all, do some online research for designs before going. There are a hundred different cuts and it takes ages to decide! They have design books there too but they could be a bit out of date. Depending on the design, often piping looks nice. Also, you have the option to get it with cups and without, and either with a zipper or hooks, with inside lining and without (lining makes always sense).

For blouses, get a nice hanging for the blouse for the strings. Best to take the whole saree with you to match the style at the shops (I marked those shops on the map). You can do that either before going there and also after. These hangings can be put at any time and you can change them easily. For weddings, a heavy blingy hanging shouldn’t be missing!

Where can I alter clothes?

There are lots of tailors all across the markets, often just sitting close to some stall on the road without a proper shop. If it’s for a quick alteration or quick fix of something, you can give it to them. They will usually do it within 30 minutes.

Where to fix my things?

In the whole of Delhi, you find people to repair shoes. Looking at the quality of most shoes in combination with the bad roads, it’s definitely required! It’s ridiculous how cheap this is! These guys can also do other things, like making an additional hole in a belt and small stuff like that.

There’s this really nice old man on the Market road, opposite Meena Bazaar, just in front of these jewelry stores. He’s very good and fixes your shoes mostly within half an hour.

Around the corner to Meena Bazaar, in the same lane with the Lavanya Tailors, you can get all kind of stuff fixed, e.g. all components of bags like the inner linings, zippers, D-links etc.

I love how you can get everything fixed so easily and cheaply in India! In Europe, these services are so expensive, that it makes more sense to just throw the shoes or bags away.

Where to get Henna Tattoos?

You have surely heard of Indian henna tattoos. You can find them at so many markets sitting on the roads. There is a row of those guys sitting opposite Meena Bazaar, in front of the bangle shops.

I bought too much and need a bigger bag!

Vendors usually give you small bags for your purchases so that you often end up with more bags than you can carry. But here’s the good news: There are guys roaming around in the whole market who sell very cheap big bags wherein you can put all your new acquisitions. They cost around 50 INR.

From a sustainable point of view, I can only urge you to bring your own jute bags and avoid their bags altogether.

Be careful of thieves!

The market is super crowded with people so be careful with your bag. Best is to have one with a zipper and make sure you keep it closed.

To get a better impression…

For those who would like to see what Lajpat is like, this video – although it sounds like a commercial – gives a great overview of the whole market.

Any further questions? You can always write a comment or mail me. The best way is always to follow me on Facebook and message me there 🙂

Have fun exploring Lajpat yourself!

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