Пусть шёлк и красивый, я всё равно выберу блузку из хлопка.

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Breakdown of Пусть шёлк и красивый, я всё равно выберу блузку из хлопка.

• красивый: beautiful
• выбрать: to choose
• из: of

Questions & Answers about Пусть шёлк и красивый, я всё равно выберу блузку из хлопка.

What does пусть mean here? I thought it meant let.

Here пусть does not mean a command like let in let him go.

In this sentence, пусть introduces a concession:
granted that, even if, although, admittedly.

So Пусть шёлк и красивый... means something like:

• Silk may be beautiful...
• Granted, silk is beautiful...
• Even if silk is beautiful...

This use of пусть is quite common in written and careful spoken Russian.

Why is there и in Пусть шёлк и красивый? Does it literally mean and?

Not really. In this pattern, и is part of a concessive structure and often is not translated as a separate and.

The pattern is:

Пусть / хоть X и Y, ...

It means:

• although X is Y
• granted that X is Y
• X may be Y, but...

So Пусть шёлк и красивый, я всё равно... is basically:

Although silk is beautiful, I still...

The и helps strengthen the contrast, but in English it usually disappears in translation.