Air-conditioned clothing is blowing up as the bizarre, new style trend: ‘It is not exactly fashionable’

This hot, new style is literally blowing up.

Air-conditioned clothing could be the coolest trend to hit the market and offer relief in sweltering temperatures.

Japan-based Anrealage, spearheaded by designer Kunihiko Morinaga, breathed new life into nylon apparel for its spring/summer 2025 collection at Paris Fashion Week.

The brand introduced a line of inflatable garb that ballooned as models walked down the runway, each piece powered by fan technology from Kuchofuku, a company that makes chill-down garments.

“By showing air-conditioned clothes in Paris, we hope to be able to suggest 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, debuted his cooling work jackets, which operate via two fans on either side of the wearer’s waist and have been widely used by Japan’s blue-collar workers over the years to keep them cool in scorching summer months, a multi-million dollar market.

Multiple mainstream brands, however, have borrowed Ichigaya’s cutting-edge design, like Nike x Off-White and others, an attempt on behalf of Kuchofuku to expand the customer base beyond industrial sectors.

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

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

“In Japan, there is a strong impression that it is for people working on construction sites and it is not exactly fashionable, so the challenge for Japanese customers is how we can evolve the design; but overseas, it’s seen as 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 of every collection of fan-powered garb —currently priced at over $1,000 — each season.

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

He thinks this is only the beginning for air-con technology in clothing.

“We’re right at the start of it. The technology of the ventilation jackets is currently at its crudest point,” he said. “I think there’s a long arc ahead, but I can certainly see a time where it becomes more normal, and it will happen in Japan first.”

Hidesign, a Japanese company that makes work uniforms, also launched a version of air-con clothes for the spring/summer 2025 season, and the company told Vogue it is working to minimize the “large, puffy shape” of the garments for future collections.

It’s a balancing act, though, as a lack of airflow inside the clothing defeats its cooling purpose.

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

The Meanswhile team proved this theory true while in Paris for the men’s fashion season when the troupe sported air-conditioned jackets in the City of Light, where passersby were “asking” about the apparel.

“I get the impression that people are quite interested in the tech, they think it’s amazing,” Fujisaki said.