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In Architectural Digest Senior Design Editor Hannah Martin’s monthly “Having a Moment” column, she explores the ways designers are breathing fresh life into an old technique: moiré.

“I appreciate how a technique several centuries old works so well in a modern context, in both interiors and fashion,” says New York–based interior designer Tara McCauley, who applied a jet-black moire silk by Schumacher to the primary bedroom she decorated in last year’s Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse. (Recently, the fashion-lover clocked similar textiles in clothing collections from Christopher John Rogers and Oscar de la Renta.)

Much like stone or woodgrain, moire can operate on a more subtle, textural level than other patterned fabrics. As she explains, “It creates a sense of depth and movement without adding too loud a color contrast.” She loves the overall treatment but advocates for moire in smaller doses as well—on pillows, drapery, or furniture. In her own home, McCauley recently lined a bookcase with moire for what she calls “a touch of luxury.”