The textile department of the Wiener Werkstätte was established seven years after the inauguration of this famous and highly influential Viennese association of artists and craftsmen. The demand for fabric designs for use by the fashion department and in interior decoration was met by original designs from some 100 artists, including the association's cofounder Josef Hoffmann and other leading figures such as Dagobert Peche, Carl Otto Czeschka, and Maria Likarz. Their creativity gave rise to one of the most remarkable legacies of modern textile design.

This book draws on the original gouache drawings, pattern books, and samples now in the collection of the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna—a truly remarkable archive of the over 1,800 recorded fabric designs. These range from the early rounded naturalistic motifs of art nouveau to later angular geometric designs associated with art deco. A wealth of reproductions, many in color, are supplemented by a catalogue of designs and photographs of fabrics in use in fashion, interior decoration, exhibitions, and the Wiener Werkstätte's own showrooms.

The patterns and prints of the Wiener Werkstätte were among the most popular and successful textile designs of the early twentieth century, reflecting both the tastes of Viennese society and general trends toward artistic abstractionism. They are presented here in an unparalleled compilation. 417 illustrations, 306 in color.