Today we're bringing you a thousand-year-old invention from Japanese culture that brings together many of the qualities we love at Lulú Ferris and also lets us indulge our love of fabrics and their wide variety of colors and prints. When we talk about Furoshiki, what we mean exactly is a square piece of fabric used to store, carry, and wrap things.
Because of its great versatility, it has gradually been given new and innovative uses. For example, as a decorative element, whether on a piece of furniture, adding personality to a wall, or even on the floor. That's one of the characteristics we love, because it allows creativity and imagination to come into play.
In Japanese tradition, when it was used to wrap a gift, the person who had made it would take it back with them. If they left it at the home of the person receiving the gift, the host was required to return it with another gift inside.
Apart from being a beautiful ritual, this was also because women often used valuable fabrics from their trousseaus, small treasures that formed part of the family fortune.
However, as long as you aren't using priceless Chinese silks of extraordinary value, at Lulú Ferris we think it's a wonderful touch to make the fabric part of the gift. The perfect way to make it much more original and valuable is to wrap it in a Furoshiki that we know the recipient will like. Perhaps in their favorite color or with a print they love. This way, the gift is doubled, since they can reuse the wrapping however they like.
It's a great way to distance ourselves from a “use and throw away” culture, because a Furoshiki is never thrown away, and that's another one of its advantages: it follows the three Rs of ecology (reduce, reuse, and recycle). We also love its meaning, since the effort and care we put into preparing the fabric wrapping symbolize heartfelt gratitude toward the person receiving the gift.
You won't have any trouble finding tutorials online for wrapping gifts of all kinds of shapes, from square boxes to wine bottles.
As a DIY lover, you may prefer to give your Furoshiki another life and use it as raw material to make some little wonder. If you need ideas, the Lulú Ferris YouTube channel has plenty of videos to help you with your creations step by step.
Also remember that our store has a wide variety of wonderful fabrics available that will make any Furoshiki a resounding success.
Don't wait any longer, furoshiki-wrap your gifts!