Move Aside, Traditional Velvet: The Unique Take On The Trend That We're Seeing Everywhere This Fall

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In recent years, velvet has captured the hearts of designers and homeowners. While velvet couches and throw pillows remain in fashion, especially with cozy, elevated design trends taking over right now, a new twist on the velvet trend has risen in popularity — cut velvet. Unlike traditional velvet, cut velvet offers variety in terms of pattern and texture while still maintaining the softness and jewel tones of velvet fabric.

Cut velvet offers a great way to take advantage of the shift toward warmer, more comfortable interiors. The austere elegance of minimalism looks great in design magazines, but your home should be a place where you feel comfortable, with your unique personality on display around you. Velvet is a step in the right direction, but cut velvet is a giant leap, offering pattern as well as color and texture. If you already have plenty of furniture, you might not be eager for a total overhaul of your space, but cut velvet is easy to incorporate though smaller items like throw pillows and cushion covers.

Velvet continues to be a solid design choice, having stood the test of time, with the earliest evidence of velvet production dating back to 2000 BC Egypt. Since its early days, textile artisans have innovated on velvet's initial design, resulting in variations like cut velvet. Traditional velvet is dense, woven from a mixture of ground, warp and silk pile, but cut velvet is one of two sculptured velvet fabrics, the other of which is devoré or "burnt-out" velvet. These sculptured velvet fabrics can be made from silk, as is traditional, but they can also be made from cotton, mohair, and acrylic, which are more durable and easy to clean, but just as soft.

With cut velvet, parts of the pile are cut away to form relief patterns that vary in texture. This variance in texture takes advantage of the unique way velvet catches light in contrast with the duller, shorter relief. Modern cut velvet styles often incorporate geometric patterns as well as floral and animal print designs, such as the Austin Horn Classics Animal Pattern Cut Velvet Pillow Cover Set. 

Since traditional velvet often comes in solid colors, it can seem more approachable to incorporate into your space than cut velvet, which offers variation in color and pattern. There are many stylish ways to incorporate velvet into your home décor, including cut velvet accents. You can bring cut fabric into your home through statement pillows, drapes, curtains, and custom cushions for window seats and benches. Because cut velvet makes for such a good statement piece, it doesn't necessarily need to perfectly match everything else in the room.

You can also reupholster an existing piece of furniture with a unique cut velvet fabric. Though velvet has a reputation for being high maintenance, velvet furniture being delicate is a myth, so the fabric is actually a great choice for high-traffic areas and large furniture items like sofas and armchairs. In addition, performance velvet fabrics, which are resistant to stains, tears, and fading, have become more common, offering even more protection for your furniture.