A 17th-century box-chest, a slender modernist closet from the mid-1950s and a wacky shelving unit designed in 1999.

On view together at Designmuseum Danmark, as part of a temporary display about the environmental consequences of the contemporary fashion industry, the three pieces tell the story of the “evolution of the private wardrobe”, says curator Anders Eske Laurberg Hansen. “They all have the same function. But they signify how careless we have become.”

The volume of clothes that all three examples might hold is roughly the same. Hansen’s premise is that our addiction to fast fashion — “cheaper and cheaper, yes, but poorer and poorer quality” — has changed the look and shape of our wardrobes — and our perception of the value of the clothes they contained.