When you think of velvet, an air of luxury come to mind. The term “velvety” means soft, taken from the name velvet. Velvet is a type of fabric known for its smooth, soft and shiny quality surface. It has been a fixture of fashion design and home décor for years, and its high-end feel and appearance makes it an ideal textile for elevated designs. Traditionally, the first and the most expensive velvet was made from silk thus it is rare. Velvet can also be made from several different kinds of fibers, like cotton, linen, mohair and wool. More recently, synthetic velvets have been developed, mostly from polyester, nylon, viscose, acetate, and from either mixtures of different synthetics or from combined synthetics and natural fibers. Velvet is woven on a special loom that weaves two thicknesses of the material at the same time. The two pieces are then cut apart to create the pile effect, and the two lengths of fabric are wound on separate take-up rolls. This complicated process meant that velvet was expensive to make before industrial power looms became available, and well-made velvet remains a fairly costly fabric. Velvet was first introduced in Baghdad around 750 A. D by Kashmiri merchants and to Al-Andalus by Ziryab. In the Mamluk era, Cairo was the world's largest producer of velvet and much of it was exported to Venice whence it spread to most of Europe. Note that there are different types of velvet and we are currently working with the Panne which is also a type of crushed velvet.