Learn French: Voici l'ours de velours. - Here is the velvet bear.

In French, de is used to indicate the material something is made out of, like velvet in this case. We use à to describe a distinguishing feature, physical trait, or accessory. If it were a real bear known for having a velvet-like coat, you might use a descriptive structure with à, but since this object is physically constructed out of velvet, we use de.

Could I say l'ours en velours instead?

Yes, absolutely! In modern everyday French, using en to express what something is made of (en velours, en bois, en or) is actually more common than using de. Using de for materials often sounds a bit more elegant, traditional, or literary, but both are grammatically correct and mean the same thing.

Why isn't there an article before velours? Shouldn't it be du velours?

When a noun follows de (or en) to specify the material of an object, it acts directly as a modifier and drops the article. You would say du velours (some velvet) if you were talking about a quantity of the fabric, but here de velours simply functions like an adjective meaning 'velvet-made'.

Is ours de velours the standard French term for a teddy bear?