The perfect love triangle – pop culture, art and design. Madonna, Ritts, Gaultier - iconic style.

We can say that Madonna is one of the most recognizable pop culture icons. She’s controversial, provocative and glamorous. She knows the importance of her image and style, and she knows how to use it perfectly. During her whole career, she has been dynamically changing her artistic and stage faces, using fashion, art and design to play with her image in many ways and styles.

Madonna by Herb Ritts | source: http://madonnascrapbook.tumblr.com/post/26619804062/lady-madonna-a-change-of-face-1986-herb-ritts

The making of...from our latest photo session.

A little bit more from backstage... And more to come soon!

Make-up: Magda Tajber

Candy Flavors | Use fashion and make a revolution...

In Artavaganza, we treat design and art as a way of thinking and lifestyle. But it’s not just our point of view. We come from a very long history of cultural changes and ever-changing trends. In this post, we’ll guide you through astonishing examples of eccentric and original expressions in fashion and design history.

Vivienne Westwood | source: http://cdn.thegloss.com/files/2010/09/vivwes.jpg

What’s to say for a start? Well, maybe the fact that it all started in 1970s. The economical situation and sociopolitical condition during 70’s in England was an indirect reason of the beginning of subcultural movement, which afterwards was called punk. That movement was young people’s denial of the cultural and political achievements of older generation. That didn’t only mean the ideological and political change, but also aesthetic revolution. One of the icons and – at the same time – creators of punk were Vivienne Westwood (today, the most famous and recognizable English fashion designer) and her life partner Malcolm McClaren (famous musician and manager). That eccentric couple was an author of the visual image of punk movement.

EYE CANDY | Let's stay in touch!

The main goal of Artavaganza is to give you all what's best! As you can see, we are absolutely open to make a contact and to stay in touch with you!  If you have any questions, suggestions or requests, just contact us!

If you would like to make an order for some exclusive Artavaganza's design for your company, for yourself, or for someone special, our graphic designer and art manager, Kamil will take care of it!

If you want to ask about our products, or you want to organise the transportation of a package to your country, ask Karol for help, he will reply to all your questions!

If you need any press materials, or you'd like to ask for Artavaganza's approval for using some of our materials like photos or texts from our columns, contact Alexandra!

To reach us, send us an e-mail to: shop@artavaganza.com

To be close to Artavaganza's hot news, you can follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/artavaganza 

If you'd like to share your thoughts and experiences with us, leave a comment on our blog! We'll be happy to know what you think.

To be a part of Artavaganza's promotions, competitions and benefits, join us on facebook! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Artavaganza/146478985372666

www.artavaganza.com

The making-of...

There's much going on right now in Artavaganza and we're very excited to give you a glimpse of these glamorous things. We'll be updating the blog with a new, delicious and candy-flavored photo session, but for now, have a taste of a tiny little bit:

Make-up: Magda Tajber

There's more coming soon, so keep checking our blog!

www.artavaganza.com

Fresh!

As some of you might have already noticed, we have been redesigning our blog throughout the last couple of weeks. We've been working on typography, usability and overall feeling, as we felt the previous version was not enough to show who we really are.



Tonight, we're proudly presenting the new and fresh Artavaganza blog, along with some new and tasty updates:


1. We have added the Read more about... box in the upper left part of the blog. There, you can read more about who we are, what our goals are and who's who in the team.

2. You can now subscribe to our new posts using the widget below Join us on Facebook box to get the new updates right into your blogger reader.

3. From now on, you can jump through the posts using the LinkWithin widget under the posts. Have fun exploring our inspiration mine!
If you have any suggestions on how we can further improve our blog, don't hesitate to leave a comment.

Kisses,
Artavaganza

www.artavaganza.com

Hello, boys and girls!

We're experiencing some technical problems with our online store at www.artavaganza.com. Everything should be working just fine tomorrow, but for now you can just keep reading our posts from this blog.

See you tomorrow with a new update!

#Update: unfortunately, the servers are still not stable, so we hope everything will be up and working tomorrow at latest. Sorry for inconvenience.

Happy Easter!

CANDY FLAVORS | Konnichiwa! How to be kawaii?

Have you ever thought what role your image plays in life? Is it only about the visual side and being fashionable? Or maybe there is more to it?

For us, the image is a way to express yourself. To show your personality and style. We really do appreciate fancy and crazy outfits. What's interesting is that there's an infinite amount of trends and ways of expression around the world.

Let's have a trip to Japan and learn how to be kawaii!

One of the most colourful and dynamic styles is the Japanese one. The strong influence of Harajuku theme on international fashion trends becomes pretty obvious when you look closer. If you'd like to learn more about what Harajuku style is, click here. But for now, let's have a look how Japanese boys and girls are expressing themselves:

Photo by Kira, source: http://tokyofashion.com/kawaii-fashion-snaps-pop-n-cute-harajuku/         

What makes the Harajuku style so brilliant and influential?
Click to read more!

Spring's coming. We're shipping for free!

Hello, boys and girls!

The spring's just around the corner, so we wanted to share some fabulous new with you: we'll be delivering our products for free to all our customers starting from March 21st, the very first day of spring!

Get ready to pick your candies from our store and get it delivered right to your door for no additional costs. See you in our store on March 21st!

www.artavaganza.com

Things to do, part III

Here's a little bit of eye candy from our newest photo session.
Relish!

www.artavaganza.com

For all the ladies...

Hi and hello, girls! It's your Special Day, so we wish you lots of kisses and love.
May all your dreams (even the nasty ones) come true!

Love,
Artavaganza

Things to do, part II - nails!

CANDY FACTORY | Try our Cotton Candy!

Hello again and welcome to our Candy Factory column! Today we'll introduce you to the technical specifics of our wonderful t-shirts. Why? Because we believe it's important. 

When we see something we like, we always want to know more about it. How it's made, what it's from and so on. What we believe here in Artavaganza is only the highest possible quality. We're putting much effort to not only make it look fabulous, but also be fabulous down to a single thread.

www.artavaganza.com

  

So... if you want to know more, click through to read!

Things to do, part I - nails...

What we're up to? Check it out in the following weeks!


www.artavaganza.com

And the winners are...

It's time for a great revelation – we have the winners of our St. Valentine's Day creative contest!

The first winning entry is by Joanna Konik: Artavaganza. Love at first kiss.

The second one is by Rafał Gajdzik: Tie the knot with Artavaganza!

Congratulations to the winners, thank you for all the entries and see you in the next competitions!

CANDY FLAVORS | What if art, design and fashion marry?

In Artavaganza, we aim to merge design with art and fashion. We actually find this point of view very, very creative. The marriage of all three creative activities might be successful enough to change the way things are perceived.

So, we'd like to share some examples of this interesting cultural influence in design with you. The romance of art and design is based on inspiration. Sometimes artists find their inspirations in a muse.

 print by Andy Warhol, source: http://eliensatlanticwire.blogspot.com/

Who is this post about? Click to see more!

One more week to win our sexy designer neckties!

Responding to your requests, we decided to run our competition for one more week, so the closing date to send the entries is February 14th (St. Valentine's Day!), 12 noon Central European Time.

To read the rules, click here.

Send your entries to shop@artavaganza.com and get our ties for you and your love!

CANDY FLAVORS | Color trends

There is no fashion capital like Paris, and there is nothing like le chic parisien! French women have always had a good taste, and have always been a glamorous example of a good style. Obviously, French fashion designers have always been the world's top.

What we're doing here in Artavaganza is look carefully at international trends. What's more, we're doing it with pleasure! One of our favorite fashion blogs is fashion inside (http://fashioninside.blogspot.com/). What's it about? Well, it gives good advidce on what's on top from the French point of view. And, we assure you, it's always stylish.

Hummel shoes, source: http://fashioninside.blogspot.com/2011/12/soiree-blogueurs-bloggers-night.html

What have we found? Click to read more!

EYE CANDY | Brainstorming!

In Artavaganza, we always work as a team. We mostly discuss design problems, look at international trends and try to find the best solutions. When working on our collection, we know it's not one man's job to do all the stuff – it's the team of people who have passion for beautiful things. What makes us special? 

Well, you could say it's nothing new to do a little brainstorming session every now and then. But the best way to do that is a triple brainstorm! It's a hard work, sure, but we actually like spending time together! That's what makes us creative as a team.

And, on top of that, we're having lots of fun! 

www.artavaganza.com

 

Click to see more after the fold:

Fall in love with Artavaganza! | contest

St. Valentine's Day is coming! We know how much it means to be loved, but what we also know is that it takes lots of effort to spark the fire of love in someone's heart! 

We'd love to help all who still pursue their love to make the pursuit easier. But we're also thinking of the ones who love and feel loved - to give them the tools to heat up things a little bit. 

With this post, we're starting our creative contest where you can win a set of 2 ties of your choice from our "Tie me up!" collection. Yes, two of them. One for you! And the second one for someone you love. Or simply like. 

The task? Become our fan on Facebook and show us how creative you are by writing a St. Valentine's Day slogan promoting our products. There are two main prizes, so two of the best entries get tie sets.
Send your entries to shop@artavaganza.com

If you have friends who you know that are great in making up witty catchphrases, let them know! You can always share your prize :)


What's in the Candy Box? Let's have a look:

 

 Click through to read the rules and see more of our candies.

CANDY FACTORY | A short history of neckties

Have you ever thought of the origin of a necktie? No? Well then, you've come to the right place where you could get to know a little bit more about where it all began.

Did you know that neckties or, originally, cravates were probably used to prevent clothes from getting dirty? Initially just a plain strip of material, they were used by Croatian mercenaries supporting Louis XIII of France against the Duc de Guise and the Queen Mother, Marie de Medici. The military kit that the Croatians were using during that time was an inspiration for curious Parisians to start using them as a fashion accassories. The word itself, cravat, comes from the misspelt word Croat (originally Hr̀vāt in Croatian).

Cravat-tying illustrations fragment (by G. Cruikshank) from "Neckclothitania or Tietania, being an essay on Starchers, by One of the Cloth" (published by J.J.Stockdale, Sept. 1st. 1818).

The English equivalent of cravat, necktie, also has an interesting history. Breaking the word in two, let's look at the parts we have - neck and tie. The true origin of the "neck" word is unknown, yet it is assumed that it may come from Proto-Indo-European word knok meaning "high point" or "ridge". The traces of the word can be also found in Old Irish cnocc, Welsh cnwch and Old Bretonian cnoch meaning "hill".

Digging into the history of the second word, tie, you'll find that it may come from Old Norse tygill, meaning "string" or Old English teon, meaning "to draw, pull, drag;"
The usage of word necktie in the sense we use it today was first recorded in 1761.

But what happened later? Click the button to read after the fold.

CANDY MAKERS | Kamil Kamysz | designer

The most important thing for us here in Artavaganza is design. As we all know, design doesn't happen by itself – there is always a designer behind what you can see, so we'd like to introduce our art director and designer – Kamil Kamysz.

Kamil is a highly successful graphic designer. He was awarded grand prix at Agrafa International Graphic Design Biennale 2007, Katowice in Publications category for his book, "Der Zusammenhang". His works are taking part in many international graphic design biennials, such as China International Poster Biennale in Hangzhou in 2011, International Poster Biennale in Warsaw in 2010, and Agrafa International Graphic Design Biennale in Katowice in 2009 and 2007.

His works were also exhibited in Rio de Janeiro during ICGA Congress in 2011 and on Leipziger Buchmesse in Leipzig, Germany in 2007. His research work was presented as part of Metadata Offer New Knowledge project during Society for Digital Humanities conference at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada in 2007. 

If you want to know more about him or his works, visit his online blog: 

http://kamilkamysz.blogspot.com

Kamil is responsible for all our products design and Artavaganza's visual identity.

He really is our precious treasure! :)

www.artavaganza.com 

New columns on Artavaganza's blog in 2012!

We want to give you something new, awesome and really exciting in 2012!

We decided to start regular columns on our blog to provide you with more information, tittle-tattles and facts from Artavaganza's background.

CANDY MAKERS 

Who is Artavaganza team? What we do and what we're like? We'll be introducing ourselves to bring you closer to our world. We want you to get to know us better!

CANDY FACTORY 

We like to know what we wear. We also know you'd probably like to know more about our products.  And so you will - in this column we'll be revealing the details about design, production process and materials we're using.

EYE CANDY
For designers, their workshop is the most important place in the world. If you would like to see Artavaganza during work, look for posts with this tag. We will guide you around our workshop!


CANDY FLAVORS 
Artavaganza & the rest of the world! We are careful observers of the international trends in fashion and design. See what we noticed!

Join us, we won't let you get bored in 2012! 

Artavaganza | wear art!

To stay in touch, follow us on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Artavaganza/146478985372666

or join us on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/artavaganza

www.artavaganza.com is on-line!

As it's the very first day of the year, it's also the first day of our online candy shop. 

Have a look and taste the flavors we have in the store! 

http://www.artavaganza.com/