Since 2019, My Whole Wardrobe Has Fit in One Bag

In 2019, I made a decision I didn't expect to last: I would only own what I actually wear. Two pairs of jeans. A handful of shirts. A jacket for the cold. Since then, everything I own has fit in one bag.

I'm not telling this story to recommend it. Most people don't live this way, and they don't need to. I tell it because it changed how I look at clothes, and eventually it changed the question at the center of my doctoral research. The question was no longer what our clothes are made of. It became how often we actually wear them.

The number that makes all us feel guilty

Most conversations about sustainable fashion focus on production: cotton versus polyester, factories, recycling, new materials. These matter. But one number gets far less attention.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation found that between 2000 and 2015, global clothing production roughly doubled. Over the same period, the number of times each garment was worn before being thrown away fell by about 36%.

We make twice as many clothes and wear each one less.

A garment worn twice as often does twice the work for the same water, energy and materials. Yet how much we wear our clothes, not just how they are made, rarely appears in the debate.

Travel makes it worse

If there is one moment when this pattern shows up clearly, it is when we travel.

We buy for trips. A coat for a city colder than ours. An outfit for a wedding abroad. A suit for a conference we attend once. Many of these pieces come home and wait in the closet for years.

Then we pack. Most of us pack for every possible situation, then fly it all there and back, often wearing only part of it. It's a habit so ordinary that we rarely question it.

Why renting may fit travel better than daily life

Clothing rental has been around for years now, and it has mostly been offered for everyday life: a monthly subscription, a dress for a party, a box of new outfits at home. That asks people to give up clothes they reach for every day, and many aren't ready to.

Travel is different. A trip's clothing needs are temporary by definition. They are tied to one place, one season and one purpose. That is exactly where owning clothes makes the least sense, and where renting could make the most.

At least one airline has tested this idea. In 2023, Japan Airlines and Sumitomo Corporation launched a trial called "Any Wear, Anywhere," which let international visitors to Japan rent a set of clothes delivered to their hotel, then return it before flying home. The trial was later extended into 2025. Whether services like this can work at scale is still an open question, but the experiment points in an interesting direction.

My own research sits in that space. I am building and evaluating NOLUGGS, a service that lets travelers rent a personalized wardrobe at their destination instead of packing their own clothes. The goal isn't to make people own less. It is to make sure the clothes that already exist get worn more, by more people, in more places.

Habits change through convenience, not guilt

One thing I've come to believe is that people rarely change their habits because they are told to. Guilt is a weak motivator. Convenience is a strong one.

Nobody stopped buying DVDs because of a lecture about plastic. They stopped because streaming was easier. If travelers ever move away from packing, I suspect it will be for similar reasons: no carousel, no overweight fees, no ironing in a hotel room. The environmental benefit would follow the convenience, not the other way around.

That is the question my research is testing. I don't know the full answer yet.

The fair objections

Any idea like this deserves honest scrutiny.

Would people wear clothes someone else has worn? For many, hygiene and trust are real barriers. Hotels already ask guests to sleep in sheets others have used, but clothing feels more personal.

What about fit and personal style? Professional clothing is part of how people present themselves. A rental service has to get fit and style right, or it fails.

Doesn't delivery and cleaning have its own footprint? Yes. Shipping, laundering and returns all have a cost. Whether the system comes out better overall has to be measured, not assumed.

These are not reasons to dismiss the idea. They are the questions it has to answer.

Back to the one bag

My one bag was never about owning less for its own sake. It taught me that most of what we own does very little, and that what we actually need is smaller than it looks.

The most sustainable garment may not be a new one made better. It may be one that already exists, worn more often, by more people, in more places. Travel might be the best place to start finding out.

Sources

• Ellen MacArthur Foundation. (2017). A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion's future. Read the report
• Japan Airlines & Sumitomo Corporation. (2024, July 30). "Any Wear, Anywhere" clothing rental service trial extended [Press release]. Read the release
• World Economic Forum. (2023, July 10). Japan Airlines' clothing rental service aims for sustainable tourism. Read the article