What is a wardrobe? It is an item of furnitere; a cupboard, often wooden,  usually equipped with doors and or drawers, a mirror, and other devices, used for storing clothes.

The word wardrobe has a long and varied history. The infamous English writer, Geoffry Chaucer used it to mean…  a privvy (or lavatory) and for some time it signified not a piece of furniture but a room or apartment; in medieval England, for instance, the king’s wardrobe was the centre of a good deal of administrative machinery. That’s where his inner council might meet and sort out policy, tax collection and other matters of state. One has to get the image out of one’s head of a king and three councillors cramped up and cursing in the sort of wardrobe we recognise today!

Victorian Mahogany Wardrobe

The actual piece of furniture in which clothes (or robes) were kept was originally known as a “press”, and at quite an early date its division into two parts—one for hanging garments, the other for laying them out flat—became established. By the 17th century the word wardrobe was coming to be accepted as descriptive of this kind of piece, while the earlier emphasis on heavy(and some would argue heavy-handed) carvings on and surrounding the doors,  was being supplanted by elaborate veneers and marquetry.

In some instances, wooden wardrobes were incorporated into the paneling of bedrooms. And you thought built-in wardrobes were a 20th Century innovation!

Modern built-in wardrobe

By the end of the 18th century wardrobes usually consisted of a clothes press flanked by slightly recessed cupboards.

The mass production of furniture in the 19th century, combined with England’s growing affluence, which meant that people possessed more clothes, led to great importance being attached to the wardrobe as a piece of bedroom furniture. Massively and ornately constructed, they were usually part of a bedroom suite consisting of drawers, washstand, dressing table, and of course the bed. In the 1860s the practice was introduced of fitting a mirror on the exterior of the centre door; though this arrangement is still found in the 20th century, it is more customary for it to be on the inside of the door. Contemporary fashion also tends to prefer solid wood wardrobes that form an integral part of the architectural structure, often called closets.

Today wardrobe’s are made from a variety of materials, oak, mahogany, pine, bamboo and even plastic, cloth and metal!