They are aesthetes who scour the beach for seashells. They forage for leaves and flowers, and sometimes paint them silver. They are unapologetic hoarders who stash their treasures in closets and curio cabinets or simply add them to the disarray on their work tables.
They are prop stylists — creative people who find objects that help tell a story or convey a mood for brand, editorial or film projects — and they are hyper-focused on the details.
Perhaps not surprisingly, a prop stylist’s superpowers tend to kick into overdrive during the holidays — especially when it comes to wrapping gifts. The Times recently interviewed three of these pros to hear about their fascination with tissue paper, “Little Women” inspirations and favorite sources for supplies.
Robin Zachary
Ironing tissue paper before using it to wrap a gift may sound a bit extreme, especially during the busy holiday season. But Ms. Zachary, a Manhattan resident and author of the 2022 book “Styling Beyond Instagram” (Schiffer Craft), disagrees.
“People think of it as just stuffing — to put in a bag or stuff around the gift in a box,” she said. “But I like using it as wrapping paper because it’s a little fluffier, doesn’t crush easily and it has a little bit more of an organic look.” She said that she often layered two or three sheets at a time for a sturdier covering, and that she preferred neutral shades to “let the ribbon make the splash.”
“I have a huge collection of recycled silk ribbons,” she noted. “Some that I love are made from recycled saris with rough edges; they’ve got this really earthy look.”
Like other prop stylists, Ms. Zachary crafts quite a few things herself, such as gift tags. “I purchased die-cut tags with scalloped edges and then used glue to apply glitter glass to the edge,” she said.
Glitter glass? “They make it in Germany. It’s different from regular glitter because it’s made of glass so it takes the sparkle up a notch. But you have to be careful because you can cut yourself on it.”
If your style leans toward the organic and natural, Ms. Zachary offered a final tip that might be particularly pertinent for anyone living near Christmas tree sellers: “Sometimes the guys will give you bundles of the branches that they’re trimming off the bottom. And then you can cut sprigs of evergreen to use on the gift packaging.”
Festive favorites Parcel, a shop in Montclair, N.J., that also sells at shopparcel.com, for handmade cards, vintage-style gift wrap, ornaments and sparkly trims; Honey Silks & Company, for handmade velvet, silk and recycled ribbons; Tinsel Trading, for holiday notions, millinery flowers, vintage ribbons and embellishments; and Etsy, for German glitter glass.
Ginny Branch
“I usually choose one color palette for the season,” said Ms. Branch, who lives in Atlanta and has produced projects for Anthropologie, Ballard Designs and a number of home and garden publications.
This season, she noted, her papers and trims will focus on “really muted colors, like ocher, dusty rose and blue-gray.” But she suggested that someone looking for inspiration might consider the holiday ballet favorite “The Nutcracker”: “I think all the pinks and reds and blues of that candy-colored world paired with a lot of white is really lovely.”
Ms. Branch also mentioned “Little Women” — in particular, Greta Gerwig’s 2019 movie — as a perennial touchstone. “Visually, it’s a delight,” she said, referring in particular to the Christmas scene as “very magical, with a lot of handmade elements in it like glitter stars and dried orange slices.”
For wrapping paper, Ms. Branch said she favored prints that evoked antique wallcoverings, or Italian paper detailed with Florentine patterns. She recommended using ribbons in a mix of textures and widths and selecting them to contrast with the scale of the paper’s pattern. If it has very small details, she said, “I might use a medium to large ribbon, just because I don’t want the ribbon to get lost in the busyness of the pattern.”
With larger motifs, she added, “You have much more flexibility because you can kind of go either way.”
As a finishing touch, Ms. Branch suggested topping gifts with a natural element, such as a feather or a dried flower, or a small antique toy if the recipient is a child. And, in a closing pro tip: “Home Depot has a butcher paper that’s a really pretty pinky-brown with a really nice weight. That’s a good way to get a big roll of wrapping paper for your buck.”
Festive favorites Pops & Piaf, for papers; Tinsel Trading; Terrain, online at shopterrain.com, for velvet ribbon; 32° North Supplies, an Etsy shop, for papers, tags and vintage notions; Choosing Keeping, for gift tags; Maileg, online at milegusa.com, for gift tags and small stuffed toys; and Merci Milo, online at shopmercimilo.com, for small tin toys and vintage dolls.
Robin Verrier
“I think people think that gifts have to be perfect and sophisticated — and they can be,” said Ms. Verrier, who lives in Charlottesville, Va. “But I think it’s even more special when you can make them fun and playful.
“I try to put that into my work, and I also try to put that into the way I give gifts.” (Since establishing her company, Verry Robin & Company, in 2016, Ms. Verrier has been creating and photographing mixed-media mood boards and compositions for brands such as Le Creuset, Diptyque and J. McLaughlin.)
Mixing patterns has been one way to embrace a fun approach to wrapping: “One year I did all different types of plaid paper, and some of the ribbons were plaid, too. And it was almost too much, but in a good way.”
This holiday, she plans to work with a palette of “punchy and sophisticated jewel tones — deep ruby reds and hunter greens and nice, deep saturated blues.”
And for supplies, she plans to continue relying on her list of artists and illustrators, many of them friends or talents she discovered on Instagram. Gift tags may be vintage postcards, a signature element of her mood board projects, or party table numbers like those used at wedding receptions. “It could have a chic number 8 on it, any number, and it becomes this cool graphic element,” she said. “They’re larger than a typical gift tag so you’ll have more room to write on it and if the graphic is cool, it’s something people want to save.”
Ms. Verrier feels the same way about ribbon: “I’m big on using high-quality ribbons that can be used again. If it’s not disposable, it can go on to have many lives.”
Festive favorites Tara Roma Gill and Marbled Paper Studio, both for artisan papers; Lia Burke Libaire, for gift wrap and stationery; Frou Frou Chic and Riley Sheehey, both for ribbons; Willa Heart, at shopwillaheart.com, for gift tags; and Weekend Paper Company, for table number cards.
The post When Gift Wrap Is Your Passion appeared first on New York Times.
