House of Ita’s Trasposizioni Collection explores femininity through tapestry

House of Ita has recently launched a new collection ‘Trasposizioni’, which means Transpositions, and includes a collection of tapestries that explore the multifaceted world of femininity in North Macedonia. The collection stays in tune with the designer’s distinguished style, both in the inspiration it draws and in the process of design and creation.

Headed by Margarita Aleksievska Sclavi, House of Ita designs unique and distinctive textiles, glassware, tapestries, screens, wallpapers and furniture pieces that can adorn interior spaces. All these creations honour Margarita’s Macedonian roots and at the same time, do not shy away from borrowing references from contemporary creations, thus making it both rooted as well as relevant to contemporary culture.

Margarita Aleksievska Sclavi was born in Macedonia and lived internationally through her growing-up years, before settling down in Rome, Italy. She studied Interior Decoration with English designer Abygail Ahern and Hand Painting and Printing at the Central Saint Martins, London. It is these diverse experiences that the artist draws from while creating her pieces.

A direct manifestation of the designer’s world, these pieces allow the viewers and owners to explore her sense of eclecticism in the spaces where they are placed. All the collections created by the House of Ita exemplify the designer’s imaginary world and placing them in interior spaces renders those spaces poetic.

In the most recent collection, titled ‘Trasposizioni’, the artist again draws inspiration from her North Macedonian roots, going so far as to actually use traditional Slavic-Macedonian women’s clothing of Byzantine imprint as a raw material. The collection is born out of the desire to reinterpret these high-quality garments as contemporary pieces, thus giving them meanings and functions that are different from the traditionally utilitarian role that they play in the lives of women.

The Byzantine imprints have been deconstructed and reassembled by Margarita into three tapestries that carry her grandmothers’ names - Vera, measuring 115 x 165 cms, Aspasija, measuring 116 x 180 cms, and Evgenija, measuring 75 x 190 cms.

The final pieces, while retaining their old charm and familiarity, are new and original, with re-elaborated and coherent compositions comprising archaic textures and embroidery combined with painted leaves, details and folkloric ornaments by the artist.

In keeping true to the original themes of her work, the designer is also successful in exploring the themes of cultural heritage and femininity. This is further amplified by the usage of traditional women’s clothing as a raw material for the tapestries.

“Creating ‘Trasposizioni’ was a journey to discover my roots, an intimate ritual that connected me with the culture and feminine energy of my land. The intention was to create a sort of collage of memory, a conceptual map made up of fragments of stories, where the protagonists were women.” says Margarita.

The ‘Trasposizioni’ collection is a coherent amalgamation of the modern and the archaic and serves as an important creation to honour and celebrate the North Macedonian artisanal tradition and the role of women in the applied arts.