Moodboard: This Month The Mood Is Wrapped

It’s a wrap. 2025, you’re almost over; glad to see the back of ye …

Wordsworth (“The world is too much with us; late and soon”) likely wouldn’t have been able to get beyond the morning paper’s miserable headlines either, skipping to the funny pages. “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers,” he goes on, but who can blame us for shopping? Any shop in a storm, as we attempt to steady our jangled nerves with gorgeous things to wear, to eat, to gift. And when you gift, style that baby like it’s going to the Met Ball. Or, better yet, Dita Von Teese it and make a memorable unwrapping experience for the lucky giftee.

You can solve a problem like Maria by wrapping prezzies in “brown paper packages tied up with string”, still one of my favourite things; that, and tearing strips out of old magazines, taping them together to make repurposed wrapping paper. Get furoshiki on your gifts, the Japanese traditional method of wrapping gifts in cloth, a zero-waste proposition. Use, say, a beautiful square of fabric or a reusable dish towel; there are step-by-step guides online illustrating how to tuck and fold fabric, Japanese-style – look mum, no tape! If you’re all thumbs, there are independent Irish retailers more than happy to wrap your purchases for you; see THE GLOSS X The Shopkeepers for a curated list of the 100 Best Shops in Ireland and ask.

“Recognise joy when it arrives in the plain brown wrappings of everyday life.” Judith Viorist

As we wrap up 2025, we’ll have more opportunities to get dressed. It used to be de rigueur to dress for breakfast/lunch/cocktails/dinner and to get on a plane. I think I speak for the nation when I say no one wants to see you in your pyjamas, or athleisure, for that matter, unless it’s your mummy and daddy or your Pilates teacher. The only people wearing sweatpants and tracksuits in public should be working out on actual tracks and fields; then, go home, get showered and get changed into something decent. Even Zelenskiy ditched his characteristic fatigues, changing up his look for certain meetings with world leaders, wearing a black suit with a military vibe, designed by Viktor Anisimov. With a black button-down shirt and no tie, the suit is far from classic, like the Ukrainian President, yet on point, all business.

Wrapping up in layers to face into bitter mornings needn’t mean we can’t look like yummy snacks. Our choice of winter coat is probably the most important purchase we’ll make in any season; if you plan a winter city break, be sure to ask any stylish New Yorker for tips on how to brave the current wind chill factor. Sure, we’ll eventually shed cashmere cocoons as we head indoors, starting with Paula Rowan’s cashmere-lined, biker-inspired Belle gloves in the finest Nappa leather (one finger at a time, you tempting snack, you!) That is, unless you live in an old stone house with a low BER (Brrr!) rating and wear a STABLE of Ireland cashmere beanie night and day. If you want your G-rated cottage fit for X-rated nights, consider getting it wrapped. Apply for an SEAI home energy grant and wrap those cold cold walls – while you’re at it, put in heat recovery vents, a nobrainer, according to my handy husband; exhaustively researched, he swears it’s getting hot in here. Now, let the unwrapping begin. @susanzelouf