Dufy's first essays at decorative woodblock prints in large format appealed to Poiret for their echo of German expressionism and for their "primitivism," a quality also instantly apparent to Apollinaire.(11) Dufy and Poiret got along cordially, sharing as they did "the same tendencies in decoration."(12) Dufy, already known as a fauvist painter, was abreast of modernist ideas. He shared with Poiret a profound interest in color, calling it "the creative element of light."(13) Like Poiret, he had traveled in Germany, where he had observed and been impressed by the progress of the decorative arts, particularly as manifested by the Deutscher Werkbund. In 1911, as Le Bestiaire went to press, Poiret hired Dufy to make woodcuts for the letterhead of his business stationery and to design a business card for the Martine shop [fig. 149]. Soon the two men were planning a much more extensive project: a joint enterprise to use Dufy's talents to produce textiles for Poiret's couture house. Always insistent on the importance of bright color, they set up a small workshop, which they called the "Petite Usine" ("Little Factory"), where Dufy could experiment with dyes and hues, in the process learning how to print his woodblocks on silks. Some of the designs were reworked from Le Bestiaire, others were executed especially for Poiret. Dufy also dealt with the couture house of Doeuillet, for which he provided designs in 1911.(14)

Even before his collaboration with Poiret, Dufy had been interested in textile design. In need of money to support himself while he produced the illustrations for Apollinaire's Le Bestiaire, Dufy approached the Lyon silk manufacturer Charles Bianchini with designs for sale. Bianchini had been anxious for some time to restore the reputation of Lyon silks for artistic excellence and was interested in modern design.

The firm of Atuyer, Bianchini, Férier had been founded in 1888 by Bianchini, François Atuyer, and François Férier. Charles Bianchini was the eye behind the design end of the business. In 1892, he had the idea of opening a store in Paris to market his products at fashion's very heart. He was the first Lyon manufacturer to do so. The address of the shop was 24 bis, avenue de l'Opéra, in the same district as the couture houses. In 1897, Bianchini himself moved to Paris, where he directed the store until his death in 1945. This relocation had the advantage of allowing his firm to sell directly to the end-users, the couturiers, without going through the traditional commission merchants, who had formerly been intermediaries between the Lyon manufacturers and the Paris buyers. In 1900, the parent company moved into a new modernist building in the textile sector of the Croix Rousse, high on a hill overlooking the city of Lyon. In 1902, the partners pened branches in London and Brussels, and in 1909 they established an office in New York at 366 Fifth Avenue.(15)