Pamuk faced a challenge when he began designing the second box in the collection: “What kind of compositional logic should I use to place the objects in the box?”

Since the novel and the museum were conceived simultaneously, Pamuk had already collected some objects before and during the writing process, such as Füsun’s yellow shows and the cowbell. “It was while imagining this box that I made the decision that would delay the completion of the museum for months-nay, years – and bring me both joy and sadness. No, I couldn’t just display the objects in order, like books on a shelf. The boxes had to have a special structure and an aura; they each had to have a particular soul.”

Pamuk worked on making the “fake” Jenny Colon bag named after the Romantic poet Gérard de Nerval’s lover – with Istanbul’s artisans and had found the old Şanzelize Butik signboard.