Velours

Our velvet umbrella page in miniature — the pile fabrics gathered for browsing when only that light-drinking softness will do. Velvets make winter's best occasionwear, the festive season's richest dressing, and home accents — cushions, throws, table runners — that turn lamplight into atmosphere.

House rules of the pile, wherever you land: cut all pieces with the nap running the same direction (the colour shifts with it — stroke and see), allow an extra half metre for that one-way cutting, and press only from the reverse on something soft. Those two habits are the entire secret of professional-looking velvet.

Jewel tones are velvet's home ground — emerald, sapphire, burgundy — and samples show the depth no screen can.