Cap is “convex, slightly hygrophanous (paler when dry) caps of Cortinarius torvus are pinkish clay brown, covered with pallid radial fibrils, and expanding to between 4 and 10cm in diameter; not generally umbonate. Cap surface is fairly smooth when young, sometimes breaking up into very fine scales or developing a marbled pattern when mature.A short-lived whitish cortina joins the stem to the cap rim and conceals the gills of very young specimens.”

Gills “Adnate or emarginate with a decurrent tooth, moderately spaced to distant; at first violet eventually maturing reddish brown.”

Stem is “longitudinally fibrillose stem is 4-9cm long and 1-1.5cm in diameter, clavate or somewhat bulbous (swollen in the lower part) above a tapering base; covered below the ring zone in a stocking-like sheath (the remains of the universal veil); stem flesh is greyish-white with a violaceous tinge above the ring zone.” Source-First Nature.