Our Blue Velvet design is inspired by a piece of a 15th-century velvet dalmatic. The original panel was given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of the Rogers Fund in 1945. It is patterned with a seven-lobed shield that contains an artichoke-like botanical shape adorned with tiny floral patterns on each side. The patterning was created using brocaded gilt metal thread.Velvets were originally woven on a special loom that created two thicknesses at the same time in order to achieve their marvellously soft texture. It was an expensive and painstaking procedure, making velvets like this some of the most highly prized luxury fabrics of the Renaissance.