Velvet
Velvet is a woven fabric with a short, dense pile made by an extra set of warp threads that are looped over rods and then cut.
Velvet has a soft, deep surface because it carries an extra layer of threads standing up from the cloth. These pile threads run in the warp, the lengthwise direction. During weaving they are lifted over thin rods; when each rod is withdrawn the loops remain, and cutting them gives the familiar velvet pile. Leaving them uncut gives a looped pile.
How is it different from velveteen?
In velvet the pile comes from the warp; in velveteen it comes from the weft. In historical textiles, the word velvet usually means a silk fabric with a short, dense, smooth pile. Late-medieval Italian and Spanish cut velvets, some patterned with areas of different pile height, depended on the drawloom.
Sources
- Velvet (preferred term). SILKNOW thesaurus, after CIETA
- Velvet. Encyclopedia.com (Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion)
- Pile weave. Wikipedia
See also
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