Velvet (pronounced vel-vit)
(1) A fabric fashioned from silk with a thick, soft pile
formed of loops of the warp thread either cut at the outer end or left uncut.
(2) In modern use, a fabric emulating in texture and
appearance the silk original and made from nylon, acetate, rayon etc, sometimes
having a cotton backing.
(3) Something likened to the fabric velvet, an allusion
to appearance, softness or texture,
(4) The soft, deciduous covering of a growing antler.
(5) In informal use (often as “in velvet” or “in the
velvet”), a very pleasant, luxurious, desirable situation.
(6) In slang, money gained through gambling; winnings (mostly
US, now less common).
(7) In financial trading, clear gain or profit,
especially when more than anticipated; a windfall profit.
(8) In mixology, as “Black Velvet”, a cocktail of champagne
& stout (also made with dark, heavy beers).
(9) A female chinchilla; a sow.
(10) An item of clothing made from velvet (in modern use
also of similar synthetics).
(11) In drug slang, the drug dextromethorphan.
(12) To cover something with velvet; to cover something
with something of a covering of a similar texture.
(13) In cooking, to coat raw meat in starch, then in oil,
preparatory to frying.
(14) To remove the velvet from a deer's antlers.
1275–1325: From the Middle English velvet, velwet, veluet, welwet, velvette, felwet veluet & veluwet, from the Old Occitan veluet, from the Old French veluotte, from the Medieval Latin villutittus or villūtus (literally shaggy cloth), from the classical Latin villus (nap of cloth, shaggy hair, tuft
of hair), from velu (hairy) and cognate
with French velours. The Latin villus
is though probably a dialectal variant of vellus
(fleece), from the primitive Indo-European wel-no-,
a suffixed form of uelh- (to strike). Velvet is a noun, verb & adjective,
velvetlike & velvety are adjectives, velveting & velveted are verbs
& adjective; the noun plural is velvets.
The noun velveteen was coined in 1776 to describe one of first
the imitation (made with cotton rather than silk) velvets commercially to be marketed
at scale; the suffix –een was a special use of the diminutive suffix (borrowed
from the Irish –in (used also –ine) which was used to form the diminutives of
nouns in Hiberno-English). In commercial
use, it referred to products which were imitations of something rather than
smaller. The adjective velvety emerged
in the early eighteenth century, later augmented by velvetiness. In idiomatic use, the “velvet glove” implies
someone or something is being treated with gentleness or caution. When used as “iron fist in a velvet glove”, it
suggests strength or determination (and the implication of threat) behind a
gentle appearance or demeanor. “Velvet”
in general is often applied wherever the need exists to covey the idea of “to
soften; to mitigate” and is the word used when a cat retracts its claws. The adjective “velvety” can be used of anything
smooth and the choice between it and forms like “buttery”, “silky”, “creamy” et
al is just a matter of the image one wishes to summon. The particular instance “Velvet Revolution” (Sametová revoluce in Czech) refers to
the peaceful transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring
from in late 1989 in the wake of the fall of Berlin Wall. Despite being partially in the Balkans, the
transition from communism to democracy was achieved almost wholly without
outbreaks of violence (in the Balkans it rare for much of note to happen
without violence).
Ten years after: Lindsay Lohan in black velvet, London,
January 2013 (left) and in pink velour tracksuit, Dubai, January 2023 (right).
The fabrics velvet and velour can look similar but they
differ in composition. Velvet
historically was made with silk thread and was characterized by a dense pile, created
by the rendering of evenly distributed loops on the surface. There are now velvets made from cotton,
polyester or other blends and its construction lends it a smooth, plush texture
appearance, something often finished with a sheen or luster. A popular modern variation is “crushed velvet”,
achieved by twisting the fabric while wet which produces a crumpled and crushed
look although the effect can be realized also by pressing the pile of fabric in
a different direction. It’s unusual in
that object with most fabric is to avoid a “crumpled” look but crushed velvet
is admired because of the way it shimmers as the light plays upon the
variations in the texture. The crushing
process doesn’t alter the silky feel because of the dense pile and the fineness
of the fibers. Velour typically is made
from knit fabrics such as cotton or polyester and is best known for its stretchiness
which makes its suitable for many purposes including sportswear and upholstery. Except in some specialized types, the pile is
less dense than velvet (a consequence of the knitted construction) and while it
can be made with a slight shine, usually the appearance tends to be matte. Velour is used for casula clothing, tracksuits
& sweatshirts and it’s hard-wearing properties mean it’s often used for upholstery
and before the techniques emerged to permit vinyl to be close to
indistinguishable from leather, it was often used by car manufacturers as a more
luxurious to vinyl. The noun velour (historically
also as velure & velours) dates from 1706 and was from
the French velours (velvet), from the
Old French velor, an alteration of velos (velvet) from the same Latin
sources as “velvet”.
US and European visions of luxury: 1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman in velour (top left), 1977 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham in leather (top right), 1978 Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL 6.9 in velour (bottom left) & 1979 Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL 6.9 in leather (bottom right). Whether in velour or leather, the European approach in the era was more restrained.
In car interiors, the golden age of velour began in the US
in the early 1970s and lasted almost two decades, the increasingly plush
interiors characterized by tufting and lurid colors. Chrysler in the era made a selling point of
their “rich, Corinthian leather” but the extravagant velour interiors were both
more distinctive and emblematic of the era, the material stretching sometimes
from floor to roof (the cars were often labeled “Broughams”). The dismissive phrase used of the 1970s was “the decade style forgot” and that
applied to clothes and interior decorating but the interior designs Detroit
used on their cars shouldn’t be forgotten and while the polyester-rich cabins (at
the time too, on the more expensive models one’s feet literally could sink into
the deep pile carpet) were never the fire-risk comedians claimed, many other criticisms
were justified. Cotton-based velour had
for decades been used by the manufacturers but the advent of mass-produced, polyester
velour came at a time when “authenticity” didn’t enjoy the lure of today and
the space age lent the attractiveness of modernity to plastics and faux wood,
faux leather and faux velvet were suddenly an acceptable way to “tart up” the
otherwise ordinary. At the top end of
the market, although the real things were still sometimes used, even in that
segment soft, pillowy, tufted velour was a popular choice.
1989 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham D'Elegance in velour (left) and a "low-rider" in velour (right). The Cadillac is trimmed in a color which in slang came to be known as "bordello red". Because of changing tastes, manufacturers no longer build cars with interiors which resemble a caricature of a mid-priced brothel but the tradition has been maintained (and developed) by the "low-rider" community, a sub-culture with specific tastes.
At the time, the interiors were thought by buyers to
convey “money” and the designers took to velour because the nature of the
material allowed so many techniques cheaply to be deployed. Compared with achieving a similar look in
leather, the cost was low, the material cost (both velour and the passing
underneath or behind) close to marginal and the designers slapped on pleats, distinctive
(and deliberately obvious) stitching, extra stuffing, the stuff covering seats,
door panels, and headliners, augmented with details like recessed buttons, leather
grab-handles and the off chrome accent (often anodized plastic). By the 1980s, velour had descended to the
lower-priced product lines and this was at a time when the upper end of the
market increasingly was turning to cars from European manufacturers, notably
Mercedes-Benz and BMW, both of which equipped almost all their flagships
destined for the US market with leather and real wood.
The Velvet Underground with Nico (Christa Päffgen;
1938–1988) while part of Andy Warhol’s (1928-1987) multimedia road-show The Exploding Plastic Inevitable
(1966-1967 and known briefly as “The
Erupting Plastic Inevitable” or The Exploding
Plastic Invisible). Unusually, the acronym EPI never caught on.
The (posthumously) influential US rock band The Velvet
Underground gained their name from a book with that title, published in 1963, the
year before their original formation although it wouldn’t be until 1965 the
band settled on the name. The book was
by journalist Michael Leigh (1901-1963) and it detailed the variety of “aberrant sexual practices” in the
country and is notable as one of the first non-academic texts to explore what
was classified as paraphilia (the sexual attraction to inanimate objects, now usually
called Objectum Sexuality (OS) or objectum romanticism (OR) (both often clipped
to "objectum")). Leigh took a
journalistic approach to the topic which focused on what was done, by whom and the
ways and means by which those with “aberrant sexual interests” achieved and maintained
contact. The author little disguised his
distaste for much about what he wrote. The
rock band’s most notable output came in four albums (The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), White Light/White Heat (1968), The
Velvet Underground (1969) & Loaded
(1970)) which enjoyed neither critical approval nor commercial success but by
the late 1970s, in the wake of punk and the new wave, their work was
acknowledged as seminal and their influence has been more enduring than many
which were for most of the late twentieth century more highly regarded.
