Velion Shop — Velvet and velour fabrics: how the two | velionshop.com
Wash at 30 °C or colder on a gentle cycle, never press the pile, and lift crush with steam held 10–20 cm from the surface.
Velvet fails in care in two named ways. Watermarking leaves rings where damp pile dried unevenly, and crush flattens fibres under pressure. Both are preventable, and both are partly reversible with steam.
Start with a spot test. Dampen a hidden corner or inside seam, wait 10 minutes, and look for watermarking or colour movement. If the test patch dries clean, proceed; if it rings, keep water away from the whole piece.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Machine washing is possible at 30 °C or colder on a gentle cycle. Press water out without wringing — twisting distorts the pile — and dry flat rather than hanging, so the weight of wet cloth does not stretch the base.
To refresh a crushed surface, hold a steamer 10–20 cm from the pile and let the vapour lift the fibres. Never touch the pile with a hot iron: polyester melts into a hard bead at about 250 °C, and the damage is permanent.
If the fibre is unknown, run a burn test on a clipped tuft first: silk and cotton burn to ash, while polyester melts into a hard bead. The result tells you how much heat margin the surface has. For weight-specific context see /velvet-fabric-weights, and for the construction difference that drives these rules see /velvet-vs-velour.
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