Taylor Swift new gift: Dallas-wrapping business designs the pop star’s present

A North Texas business rethinking how gifts are wrapped is getting momentum from one of the biggest names in music today: Taylor Swift. And it’s not the first time.

Dallas Gift Wrap Creations recently crafted packaging for a present for the pop superstar that showed some love for the Kansas City Chiefs, the National Football League team that includes Travis Kelce. And, as just about everyone knows, Swift has been dating the All-Pro receiver.

”It was really fun,” said Anita Ivancevic, CEO and founder of the local business. “I did rewrap twice because I was not pleased with what, kind of, I came up with initially. I was like, ‘We can do a little better.’”

That passion to make gifts just right has driven Ivancevic since the founding of her company in 2016. Today, the business has around five to eight employees, depending on the season, and a shop full of high-quality paper and ribbons at the World Trade Center in Dallas.

It’s a high-touch business, including offer pick up and delivery, on-site wrapping services, direct delivery of the wrapped gifts to recipients in Dallas-Fort Worth — and shipping out to clients beyond North Texas.

The first time Ivancevic wrapped for Swift was last year. Tavia Hunt, wife of Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, had reached out and wanted help with gifts that included a Judith Leiber “blinged out” microphone-shaped clutch purse.

The gifts went to Swift – and then Ivancevic later got a surprise when she checked a social media feed.

”The fact that there’s a picture of her holding our product is just something that I couldn’t have planned for, prayed for, orchestrated,” she said. “It was one of those things where I literally opened up Instagram and was like, ‘Oh my gosh. Like, she’s holding a box that has my logo on it.’”

That Insta post got a lot of “buzz,” she said, adding that the company has received many additional inquiries as well as new business over the last year. This year the request came in for a gift for the pop star and Brittany Mahomes.

“For me as the designer, it’s always like, ‘OK, well, how do we elevate the experience even more? How do we make it more special?,’” she said. “And in this case, we did the Chiefs theme. So there are colors and everything, which was super fun to do, because I think we … just laid into it.”

It’s a far cry from the time before the start of the company more than half a decade ago. The Brown University graduate was a real estate agent in 2016 and wasn’t seeing a lot of traction after selling a house in August. The pressure was building as the holidays approached, and she brainstormed an idea to get some cash flow.

After mentioning the idea to a hairdresser, she had her first client before the end of the year. In 2017, she incorporated the business.

”We’ve been figuring it all out ever since,” she said. “As a business owner, you’re always learning.”

Ivancevic has gift wrapped everything from lemon trees to antique sprinklers with her business — and there’s definitely a global dimension. The company will receive gifts (via shipping) to be wrapped from clients outside of Dallas. Still, it’s not just for big-named clients – and it can be for birthday parties or other events.

Whatever the case, she says she tries to bring her design approach that she describes as elegant and sophisticated. Yet she also works with clients to be flexible, a “blank canvas”, be it a children’s event or a corporate request, even as she makes the presentation in a way that keeps with her design approach.

And that comes down to design choices most of us wouldn’t contemplate. For the Swift gift last year, she reached for a Swedish paper that had been around since the 1970s but is now discontinued.

“I’m going to continue doing what I love, day in and day out, and just see where the journey takes me,” she said.