When Vanity Fair magazine asked us to reimagine a cruise ship design, we could not help but picture ourselves sailing away with glorious personalised luggage in tow!

Envisaging the golden age of cruising, a time when strolls on deck, exquisite dinners and lavish balls were the order of the day and when the journey was more important than the destination. We put forward a vision of ‘How to travel in style’.

Returning to the romance and glamour of such jaunts and inspired by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Grace Kelly, Jackie and Aristotle Onassis and their nautical adventures, we decided to reinvent the iconic luggage trunk.

They were the preferred means of storage on these long-haul transits. The passengers would each bring personalised large trunks on board, having filled the assortment of compartments with their finest clothing and treasured possessions.

To capture the imagination and bring a sense of adventure and whimsy, we decked the trunk in our vibrant, specially designed fabrics for Christopher Farr Cloth. On the outside we have used ‘Ozone’ in green; on the inside ‘Travelling Light’ linen for the drawer compartments, the ‘Peace and Love’ stripe for the lining behind the hanger. The bold patterns of these fabrics tell the tales of travellers and nomads from faraway lands, whose designs were inspired by old tribal patterns.

The small suitcase within the trunk is in our ‘Over the Moon’ denim fabric, part of our Kit Kemp for Andrew Martin collection. It is detachable and perfect for a luxurious overnight stay off the boat.

Modern ships tend to look like oversized electric kettles, unable to exude the mystery and glamour of the olden days. We felt our trunk could not exist without an equally vibrant and impressive vessel to travel the far flung seas in!

We created a slick, smart and sophisticated modern yacht veiled in audacious vibrant prints with decks in eye-catching colours!

Full article in the September issue of Vanity Fair.