“It’s not exactly fashionable”

This hot new style is in every sense of the word explodes.

Air-conditioned clothing could be the coolest trend on the market and a relief from oppressive temperatures.

Japan-based Anrealage, led by designer Kunihiko Morinaga, has breathed new life into nylon clothing for its Spring/Summer 2025 collection at Paris Fashion Week.

The brand introduced a range of inflatable garments that inflated as models walked the runway. Each piece was powered by fan technology from Kuchofuku, a company that makes chill-down clothing.

“By exhibiting air-conditioned clothing in Paris, we hope to propose new physical forms but also a sustainable solution to hot weather,” Morinaga told Vogue Business.

Twenty years ago, Kuchofuku, founded by former Sony engineer Hiroshi Ichigaya, introduced its cooling work jackets, which operate via two fans on either side of the wearer’s waist and have been widely used over the years by Japanese workers to keep them cool a multimillion-dollar market in the hot summer months.

However, several mainstream brands have adopted Ichigaya’s cutting-edge design, including Nike x Off-White and others, an attempt on Kuchofuku’s behalf to expand the customer base beyond industrial sectors.

“Our mission is to bring air-conditioned clothing to a wider audience,” Tomoyuki Iwabuchi, the company’s public relations officer, told Vogue. “We’re now at a point where it’s becoming part of the lifestyle and fashion world.”

Japanese menswear label Meanswhile introduced the technology into garments after designer Naohiro Fujisaki saw the jackets on industrial workers and “thought they could be incorporated into fashion and everyday life,” he told Vogue.

“In Japan there is a strong impression that it is aimed at people who work on construction sites and that it is not exactly fashionable. Therefore, the challenge for Japanese customers is how we can develop the design further. But abroad it is considered new, cutting-edge functional clothing,” he said.

As air-conditioned clothing becomes more widespread, Meanswhile has been selling “more since last year,” he said, adding that the company has sold out every collection of fan-powered garments each season, currently priced at more than $1,000.

“People appreciate the mix [style and] technology, but at this point I think it’s a huge curiosity,” Ian Paley, the owner of the UK-based Garbstore, which sells Meanswhile jackets in his boutique, told Vogue.

He believes this is just the beginning of air conditioning technology in clothing.

“We are at the very beginning. “The technology of ventilation jackets is currently at its lowest point,” he said. “I think there’s still a long way to go, but I certainly see a time when it becomes more normal, and that will happen in Japan first.”

Hidesign, a Japanese company that makes work uniforms, has also launched a version of air conditioning clothing for the spring/summer 2025 season, and the company told Vogue that it is working to recreate the “big, baggy shape” of the Minimize garments for future collections.

However, it’s a balancing act, as a lack of air circulation inside the clothing defeats its cooling purpose.

“I actually bought the Air Flow jacket this season,” said Souta Yamaguchi, fashion director at Hidesign and previously a stylist at Anrealage. “I just wear it on the street because it’s cool and people around me say it’s cool too.”

The Meanswhile team proved this theory to be true when the troupe wore air-conditioned jackets in the City of Light during the men’s fashion season in Paris, where passers-by “asked” about the clothes.

“I feel like people are very interested in the technology, they think it’s great,” Fujisaki said.