A large, dark‑violet, tomentose to finely scaly Cortinarius. For many years, there has been a lot of confusion over our native purple cortinarius. Resent DNA sequencing indicated that we have two described species in New Zealand that can only be told apart by their habitat.

Cap: 50-100 mm diam.; dry, convex to plano‑convex. Surface tomentose to finely scaly. Colour dark violet, paler at margin. KOH reaction: red.
Lamellae: Crowded, emarginate-adnexed, broad, of average thickness. Colour deep violet.
Stipe: 100-175 mm long; 5-11 mm thick at apex, 12-30 mm at base. Subequal, sometimes slightly bulbous, tapering gradually from base to apex. Colour pale violet. Covered in copious pale‑violet universal veil material, forming bands. Basal mycelium pale violet.
Context: Pileus and lower stipe: white flecked with violet. Upper stipe: violet flecked with white. Young specimens: violet flecked with white, base fully white.l:
Odour/taste: Not recorded.