MK Wrap Up

What would cheer me up in a heartbeat?  Seeing a Meadham Kirchhoff gift-wrapped cab whizz past and then hailing it to have a good chat with an invariably grumpy cab driver (I have a secret love of partaking in London cabbie moans – the traffic, the football, the government… ).  Meadham Kirchhoff delighted us with lovely hand painted jackets for Net a Porter that I'm still eye-balling at the moment, and now they're spreading some early Christmas cheer with an exclusive wrapping paper design for FarFetch.com, which has currently taken over their home page.

I don't think you could have found a duo more enthusiastic about their gift wrapping etiquette than Ed Meadham and Benjamin Kirchhoff.  Ed gets particularly excited about all things to do with wrapping and if you're lucky enough to be a recipient of a gift, you can expect a mass of ribbon and antique wallpaper.  I share their love although I veer more towards the anal end of the gift-wrapping scale, where every year, there's got to be a certain theme to my wrapping and EVERY gift must stick to said theme – one year it was "French rustic", another it was "Sanrio Mad" and this year I think I might pick up on Ben and Ed's vintage decal route, which partly inspired this wrapping design for FarFetch.  You can see certain elements such as the check and ribbon writing, taken from their ridiculously beautiful S/S 13 collection, where decadence, pomp and haberdashery awesomeness ran wild.  In addition, they took horses from a 1940s fabric decal design, something which Ed obsessively hunts down (there were decals that are so precious to him that he wouldn't even allow them to be photographed) and scattered them along the edges of their wrapping design.  I especially love the jolly instructions on the back of the decal – all exclamation marks and upbeat phrasing – all the better to add to this cheery mood that Meadham Kirchhoff's gift wrap induces.  

A visit to Meadham Kirchhoff's studio inevitably makes me feel like an intrusive Japanese tourist as I can't help but snap away at every bit of minutae that is going on – in the furnishings, in the scattering of objects on their desks, on the walls.  Courtney Love, Barbies, bras, witches, Hello Kitty, Minnie Mouse and other doe-eyed creatures all make up a little bit of Meadham Kirchhoff's world and they feel like constant forces that are on the back of their minds, quietly (or very loudly?) influencing their work and aesthetic.  It's achingly personal which is why I feel like an intruder showing these pictures but ever so telling of why the duo have garnered such a hardcore following.