Our medieval ancestors understood the value of clothes better than we do today. They dedicated a room and a person to treasure and guard their garments, hence we get the French word ‘garderobe’, from which the English ‘wardrobe’ is derived. In the late Middle Ages, as more people acquired more clothes, not everyone needed or could spare an entire walk-in wardrobe; so the room became a piece of furniture and the guard became a lock and key.

Wardrobe: there is an undeniable elegance to the word and object. It sounds – and is – so much more dignified than a fitted closet. The latter brings to mind tricky door tracks and a broken light fixture that’s impossible to replace. The modernist doctrinaire taught us it was swish to save on space by integrating wardrobes into the built fabric of our rooms. Perhaps this holds still in new-build hotels and housing developments, where convenience is prized more than soul. The Lion, the Witch and the Closet just doesn’t have the same ring to it.