Let’s Get Comfy : What’s soft, snuggly and making a comeback? Chenille. Interior decorators applaud its durability, and designers say it works in any weather.

In a recent magazine ad for a car, a tiny girl stands alone in a museum gallery, gazing at a huge canvas depicting air bags. The air bags are industrial and gray. The child is fragile, clothed in a white chenille dress.

Chenille, a fabric usually associated with bedspreads of decades ago, is showing up again--on designer runways and in home furnishings--because it’s snuggly, soft and reminds us of the past. It has a look of innocence.

Although the word chenille is French for caterpillar, the weaving process, in which tufts of cotton are arranged on a cotton ground to form elaborate patterns, was developed in 18th-Century America. As production techniques improved, so did the fabric’s staying power and marketability. Once primarily a bed covering, it became a popular material for clothing. But when slick-surfaced synthetic fabrics caught on in the early ‘60s, chenille became as passe as hoop skirts.

Until now. The fabric has been particularly popular as upholstery for the past several seasons.

One of Los Angeles-based interior designer Lorraine Van Zee’s clients wants every stick of furniture in her living room--two sofas, two chairs and an ottoman--reupholstered in chenille. The client’s existing chenille coverings are at least 20 years old, Van Zee says.

Los Angeles-based furniture designer and decorator Ron Meyers likes chenille for its versatility. “It’s soft, fluffy, colorful and a great way to quickly add pattern,” says Meyers, who scours the Long Beach and Rose Bowl flea markets for vintage spreads, paying up to $50 for the rich, multicolored ones. He makes them into slipcovers, and he once used chenille as a matte for a watercolor landscape.

New weaves of the fabric are built to handle heavy wear and tear. “The fibers are all cotton, very thick and pretty durable,” says Steve Melendrez, manager of the hyper-trendy L.A. furniture store Civilization, which stocks chenille-covered sofas and chairs. “It’s like carpet, the dust has someplace to go.”

Such home wares catalogues as Domestications ((800) 782-7722), the Linen Source ((800) 431-2620) and Horchow ((800) 456-7000) are also on the nostalgia trip, featuring spreads, duvet covers and brightly colored accent pillows.

On the fashion front, designers have found that fluffy fibers make for wonderful, lightweight winter sweaters. They appear in stores ranging from chains such as the Gap to designer boutiques. (And the all-cotton content is equally appealing in warmer weather, judging by several sightings of chenille dresses in the recent showings of spring collections in New York.)

Los Angeles-based designer David Dart has stocked his two eponymous stores, in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, with more than 20 styles of chenille sweaters for the holidays.

“Customers always want to touch the sweaters. They love the way chenille feels,” he says. Sales have been so good that Dart is using a woven chenille fabric next season as well. “It will be a big part of the collection,” he predicts.