The sheen of silk and its complicated workmanship have made velvet one of the most precious fabrics over the centuries, characterising the most exclusive garments as far back as the Renaissance: with the exhibition Velvet mi amor held from 8 March to 8 June 2025, Museo del Tessuto di Prato honours this unique textile material, continuing the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of its opening, just a few months after the inauguration of the exhibition Silk treasures. Textile masterpieces from the Falletti Donation.

Velvet mi amor is dedicated to contemporary experimentation with velvet, with an itinerary featuring 24 characters that take shape, born from the creative imagination and research of the studio of designers Stefano Chiassai and Corinna Chiassai, specialised in creative consultancy for national and international men's and women's fashion brands.

The 24 characters the designers created for the exhibition are entirely dressed in velvet, beings with alien shapes and futuristic looks exploring the material's potential in contemporary research, interpreting it with new forms, manipulations and innovative combinations.

The installation has been presented at a number of trade fairs, while this is the first time it is being displayed in a museum setting. It shows the public manual processes and technical experiments that go beyond stylistic exercise, celebrating the creativity of contemporary textile production.

The exhibition emphasises contemporary workmanship, in particular the versatility of the fabric, presented in an experimental way through exploratory manipulations, innovative combinations and special treatments: lasers, inlays of velvet with other materials, optical illusion prints, manual weaving, pleating, changes in the wale direction of corduroy, unusual colour combinations and new textures that animate the installation. We also find other materials alongside velvet, which imitate its appearance through a wide range of processing techniques: satin, poplin, gabardine, moleskin, denim, fabric with a more or less three dimensional, smoother or rougher surface, processed in a way that gives it the illusion of being velvet. The Chiassai's anthropomorphic figures allow us to become more acquainted not only with the richness, but also with the potential of a precious fabric that is the result of extraordinary production techniques. All in a museum that does not limit its focus to the study of ancient textiles, but has always turned its attention to the contemporary, as is also demonstrated by the Museum's Textile Library: the archive created in 2021 and dedicated exclusively to contemporary textile materials and innovation in textiles and fashion.

Velvet mi amor is not only a unique opportunity to get to the heart of experimentation and innovation in contemporary fashion, guided by the expertise of two profound connoisseurs of Italian fashion, but also a way to delve into and appreciate a fabric that continues to inspire stylists and designers all over the world, and to explore the language of contemporary fashion by addressing the new generations.