Velvet Foreground

Velvet used to be a rare and precious fabric. Not so much any more but it still creates a festive atmosphere. You think of a candle light dinner or a room illuminated by crystal chandeliers. 

My favourite Cape Town designer Eroll Arendz  may have had this in mind when he created the west of copper coloured silk incrusted with matching velvet and adorned with velvet wristbands.

A less formal take on velvet is the vintage purple suit with loose pants and a shirt by Jeff Gattana, Paris. It fits perfectly to the knitted coat from Argentina’s Andean city Córdoba. 

Raquel Rossetto has used the velvet sparingly, just for the buttons. The curvy applications on the coat remind me of Córdoba’s baroque cathedral. The second biggest town of Argentina has a much more Spanisch ambiente than cosmopolitan Buenos Aires. The colonial past is still lingering in the streets and the old buildings with the backdrop of the Sierras Chicas.