Current Design Trends: To Velvet or not to Velvet? " A throne is only a bench covered with velvet ". - Napoleon Bonaparte I have always felt a penchant for the visual and sensual attributes of velvet and I suspect that there are a lot of kindred spirits out there who concur. Not to everyone's taste, it may strike many as too weighty a fabric--overstuffed and old-fashioned. Historically associated with European royalty and nobility, it's production goes back farther to Asia and the Middle East where, because of the lengthy process of weaving velvet and the fact that it was predominately made out of silk, it was considered luxurious and therefore available to only the very rich and the very royal. In the Renaissance and Victorian eras, velvet was indisputably utilized in fashion and interior decoration to more than mad abandon. Those were passionate times. But by today's standards it reads only as theatrical and not so practical. However, quite a few of u
