Velvet, velour, velveteen and corduroy: four pile fabrics and how to tell them apart

Velvet, velour, velveteen and corduroy are all pile fabrics: cloth with a surface of short fibre ends standing up off a backing. The differences are in how the pile is made and how it is arranged, and those differences decide how the fabric drapes, how it survives being sat on, and whether you can iron it. Labels are used loosely in clothing, so the fastest way to know what you are holding is to look at the back and give it a pull. The whole test takes ten seconds once you know what you are looking for.

Velvet is a woven warp pile, cut off a double cloth

Velvet is woven as two layers of fabric held apart by a dense set of threads running between them, then sliced apart through the middle. Each half comes off with a surface of upright cut fibre ends. The pile runs from the warp, the threads going the length of the loom, which is why it is so dense and so even.

That construction gives velvet its particular behaviour: deep lustre, a visible nap direction, and almost no stretch unless elastane has been added to the backing. It also makes it the most easily crushed of the four, because the fibres stand free with nothing holding them upright but each other.

Most affordable velvet clothing is polyester or a polyester blend, which matters because polyester takes a permanent set when heated. That is why heat rather than water is the thing to keep away from it, and why ironing the face of velvet leaves a mark that does not come out.

Velveteen is the short, tough cousin

Velveteen is a weft pile. The pile comes from the threads running across the fabric rather than along it, and it is cut shorter: typically under 3mm against velvet's longer, denser surface.

The result is a fabric with less sheen, more body and far more resistance to crushing. It is usually cotton, it feels drier in the hand, and it holds a shape rather than draping. Victorian and Edwardian clothing used a great deal of it for exactly that reason.

If a fabric looks like velvet but feels stiff, has a matte rather than liquid surface and springs back when you crush it in your fist, it is velveteen or something closer to it than to velvet. It is the better choice for anything structured and the worse choice for anything meant to pool and flow.

Velour is knitted, which changes everything

Velour is a knitted pile rather than a woven one. The backing is a jersey knit, so the fabric stretches in both directions, has a heavier and softer drape, and recovers from being sat on far better than woven velvet.

The trade is lustre. Velour has a softer, more diffuse sheen, which can read as cheaper next to real velvet and reads as more comfortable next to everything else. It is the fabric of tracksuits and of theatre curtains, and both of those tell you what it is good at.

This is the single most common mislabelling in clothing. A great deal of what is sold as stretch velvet is a knitted velour, and the way to tell is to pull it sideways: if it stretches generously and the backing you can see at a seam allowance looks like a jersey rather than a woven cloth, it is knitted.

Being knitted also means velour forgives a size guess in a way woven velvet cannot. On a fitted piece in woven velvet, like a dress with a buttoned bodice and a flat collar, there is no stretch to absorb a 3cm error, and that is worth knowing before you order.

Corduroy is pile arranged in ridges

Corduroy is a woven pile fabric in which the pile has been cut into parallel ridges, called wales, with the bare backing showing in the grooves between them. That is the only real difference from velveteen: the same construction, organised into cords.

Wales are counted per inch and that number is the whole character of the fabric. Needlecord runs about 14 to 21 wales to the inch and behaves almost like a soft woven. Standard corduroy sits around 8 to 13. Jumbo cord is roughly 1.5 to 6, with ridges you can hook a fingernail into.

Because the pile sits in ridges and the backing bears the wear between them, corduroy is by far the most hardwearing of the four. It will still go shiny at the knees and the seat, which is the pile crushing in the places you press on, and on corduroy that wear reads as character rather than as damage.

Corduroy has a nap direction like the rest, which is why two panels cut in opposite directions on a cheaply made garment look like two shades of the same colour.

Telling them apart in your hands

Look at the back first. A woven backing shows two sets of threads crossing at right angles. A knitted backing shows rows of loops. That one check separates velour from the other three.

Then pull it crosswise. Generous stretch with no elastane means knitted. Almost no stretch means woven.

Then look along the surface. Ridges mean corduroy. An even surface means velvet or velveteen, and the difference between those two is pile length and spring: crush a corner in your fist for five seconds and see whether it stands back up.

Finally, tilt it under a light and turn it round. All four shade differently in opposite directions, and how dramatic that shift is tells you roughly how long the pile is.

Which to choose for what, and how care differs

For evening and for depth of colour, woven velvet, accepting that it crushes and that it needs steaming rather than ironing. For comfort, travel and anything you will sit in all day, velour, which recovers. For structure, velveteen. For daywear and durability, corduroy.

Care splits along the same lines. Velvet gets steamed hanging, from the inside, never pressed on the face. Velour tolerates a gentle machine wash far better and often comes out of a tumble with its pile intact, though heat is still not its friend. Corduroy and velveteen can be pressed from the reverse on a towel or a needle board, which velvet barely tolerates at all.

In clothing, all of this is complicated by blends and by loose labelling, so judge the fabric rather than the word on the page. If you want to know what a specific piece of ours is made from before you buy it, email us and we will read the supplier's own composition for that exact item rather than quoting a general rule. On something with two fabrics in it, like a piece that is velvet to the knee and lace below, the two halves want different handling and the care instruction has to cover the more delicate of them. The same is true of a gathered dress with a sheer upper.

Questions people actually ask

What is the difference between velvet and velour?

Velvet is woven and velour is knitted. That makes velour stretchy in both directions, softer in drape and much better at recovering from being sat on, while velvet has deeper lustre and almost no stretch. Much of what is sold as stretch velvet is really a knitted velour.

Is corduroy a type of velvet?

It is the same family. Corduroy is a woven pile fabric whose pile has been cut into parallel ridges called wales, with the backing exposed in the grooves. That arrangement makes it far more hardwearing than velvet, and it still shows a nap direction.

What is velveteen?

A weft pile fabric with a short pile, usually under 3mm, normally in cotton. It has less sheen than velvet, more body, and it resists crushing much better. It holds a shape rather than draping, which is why it suits structured garments.

How can I tell if a fabric is woven or knitted velvet?

Look at the backing at a seam allowance and pull the fabric sideways. A woven backing shows threads crossing at right angles and barely stretches. A knitted backing shows rows of loops and stretches generously without any elastane in it.