Introduction
Ilia Zdanevich, known as Iliazd, was a Georgian avant-garde artist, typographer and textile designer who worked with Chanel from the late 1920s to 1933. He designed abstract jersey patterns, developed weaving technology and directed textile production at the Maretz factory.
His departure followed a management dispute in December 1933. The tenure links Chanel’s textile operation to the Russian and Georgian avant-garde and demonstrates that the house’s modern surfaces were developed through specialist authorship and industrial experimentation.
Design ethos
Iliazd brought geometric abstraction and typographic rhythm into woven and printed textiles. Pattern was constructed as a system across the cloth rather than applied as isolated decoration.
His work joined artistic research to factory management. Patents, looms and production control mattered alongside drawing, making textile engineering central to the visual result.
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Career history
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