Max Snischek created this strikingly modern design at the Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshop), an association founded in 1903 by artists and craftsmen dedicated to raising the standard of design of everyday objects. Like many other fabrics designed at this avant-garde, multi-faceted studio, Snischek's bold geometric-patterned cotton was used by their fashion department to create sophisticated clothing. Wiener Werkstätte textiles influenced the fabrics of other countries and artists, most notably those of French couturier Paul Poiret (1879-1944). Surviving examples are often fragmentary, making this large section of cloth with "Wiener Werkstätte" printed along the selvage quite rare.