The Life Inside A Chest

I still think about when the circus came to town once a year. Posters glued to walls promised elephants, fire breathers, acrobats — and always clowns. Looking at the trunk feels like it was there backstage, cheap vintage trunk stuffed with costumes and props, waiting for the show to begin. Old stylish storage accessories (he has a good point) boxes aren’t just places to keep things. They’re keepers of journeys. Before suitcases rolled through airports, trunks were the way people travelled.

Built solid, heavy duty, sometimes decorated with brass corners or painted lettering. The funny thing is, even though this trunk looks distressed, it works in a modern home. Minimal interiors actually make the colours pop. The scratches and paint chips add contrast you can’t buy in a shop. When I first laid eyes on the circus clown trunk, I stopped in my tracks. The painted face staring upside down across the front felt like more than decoration. It felt like a piece of a lost world — an old fairground life.