Tis the Season:
The season of gift giving is upon us. We will be bombarded with packaging, wrapping paper, and tape. Most of that paper will be put in a black garbage bag and finally end up in a landfill within the next month. If we have come to terms with reusable bags at the grocery store can we go as far as putting soothing similar on our gifts? We reuse gift bags from year to year (or at least that’s why my wife tells me we have a pile of them in the office) so maybe it is time to move onto wrapping paper as well. 
Graphic designer Amy Lewis decided rethink the way we see and use gift paper by proposing what she calls ecoChici. EcoChici is a reusable cloth gift-wrap kits that come in various sizes, designs, and colors. The wrapping paper comes with two ribbon clips and of course how to successfully wrap something with cloth. This is the one of the first innovations in the wrapping paper world since they started adding glitter to it… (warning…makes a mess)
Creating materials that last has become every more important in recent time. Companies like Target and Apple have built their businesses on products that last and keep customers coming back. Consumers want the most affordable and durable product money can buy. This project reframes how I see the Holiday season. This season we don’t have to spend $30 on wrapping paper just to throw it away, instead really invest in a gift that keeps giving.
One last question… If I give ecoChici as a gift… do I wrap it?
Material Strategies 
Thanks for the great blog post – there are some pretty huge statements there. We do see ecoChici as an opportunity to challenge the disposable thinking we engage in. For example, we are very used to paying 15c for a disposable nappy (diaper), so the thought of paying $30, $40 or $50 for a reusable modern cloth one seems difficult to justify (though there are long term savings). Why pay more for something of quality when you can get a cheaper throw away version? It depends on how you measure value. We plan to explore this in more detail next year and add to the product range.
We have also thought a lot about the experience of unwrapping the gift, and what it is about tearing lovely paper open that is so much more satisfying than if it had been wrapped up in plain cloth – something I’d like to research more in the future.
And you can always wrap your ecoChici gift in an ecoChici wrap 😉