High fashion: What’s it like to rent your entire holiday wardrobe from an airline

A sartorial step towards reducing CO2 emissions or a bizarre exercise in greenwashing? Gabrielle Doman leaves her suitcase at home and tries Japan Airlines’ new clothing hiring scheme on for size

Fashion forward? Renting clothes means they’re not guaranteed to be your style (Gabrielle Doman)

Travelling with only a tiny carry-on suitcase for a long-haul flight is a flex.

It’s freedom. It’s relaxing on your flight without worrying that your belongings will be held up in transit. It’s breezing past baggage claim while weary passengers wait for their cases to trundle onto the carousel. It’s hopping from city to city with nary an escalator or flight of stairs you can’t handle.

But it’s also a small measure travellers can take to pack lighter, thus reducing their flight’s CO2 emissions, according to JAL (Japan Airlines). The airline has partnered with Any Wear, Anywhere, a Japan-based clothes rental service that provides low-cost clothing exclusively to JAL inbound travellers. They can choose from an as-yet limited online catalogue of clothing sets, categorised according to gender (male and female), season, style (casual, smart-casual and mix) and size (S to XL).