What makes the company so special is their passion for giving back. A percentage of every sale is donated to The Bakerhouse Art Complex, which is a Miami based not-for-profit educational institution that brings affordable studio spaces, exhibitions, artist advancement programming, and so much more to South Florida artists.
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| Claudia & Flavia, owners of artTECA |
We talked to the duo to learn more about the brand, the mission, and it’s contribution to art and fashion:
Halfstack Magazine: Who is artTECA designed for?
Claudia & Flavia : Our woman is the modern professional mom, who is on the run all day in between her life at work and her family and wants a garment that she can wear all day and feel comfortable to do all the errands, or attend all appointments/meetings but still look beautiful, put-together, and chic. Knowing that she is also ready for any night events that might come-up like happy hours, business dinners, dinner dates with friends or family.
HM: What is the message behind the brand?
C&F: There is a direct correlation between what you wear with how you feel. Aesthetic details such as color and patterns carry a deeper resonance than simply a fashion trend as they have a strong connection with your well-being. For this reason we carefully choose only the most impressively unique and meaningful artwork to design our prints.
From bold and colorful designs to more subtle and delicate prints, we want you to feel distinctive, sophisticated and uplifted while wearing an artTECA piece.
Wearing artTECA can inspire you to break boundaries, communicate confidence and stand out in a crowd.
As women entrepreneurs we look to empower women through fashion and art while making an impact.
HM: Where do you find the artists that you co-design with?
C&F: We work in collaboration with artists from all over the world. We have artists from the United States, Latin America and Europe. It is a very diverse group and so it's their artwork.
We established certain criteria to select the artists we work with. We look for emerging or established artists who have a serious and promising career. Well-respected galleries represent them, they have participated in solo and group exhibitions, and their artworks are part of museum or private collections around the world.
So far we have collaborated with 13 artists and at the moment we are working with new artists for future collections.
HM: Why is art important to you two?
C&F: We are sisters and we have always been involved in the art world. We grew up in a family of art collectors so it is very rooted in our culture and nature. Our heritage embraces culture and art, so its really part of our DNA. Loving art and appreciating all art forms was a way of life for us growing up. where art is an important part of culture.
HM: What are your professional backgrounds?
C&F: Claudia graduated from Broadcast Journalism at University of Miami and after working in a local TV station for a short while, she went to work in the non-profit world as a Fundraising Director for Education Programs in Latin America.
Flavia went to college in University of Hartford in Connecticut and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Arts Administration with a minor in Business, she later went on to completing a Master’s Degree in Visual Arts Administration from New York University. She worked in art galleries and art museums for 5 years in cities such as New York, Miami and Venice, Italy before founding artTECA.
HM: What sets artTECA apart from other apparel brands?
C&F: artTECA is a unique brand. Everything we do comes form passion for both fashion and art. Its not the typical apparel brand that offers the same colors as other brands for every season. We don’t strictly design on season trends; we want our clothes to standout and be more appreciated because of the value added from the involvement of the artist hand. Art is timeless and so are our pieces. The beauty of our designs and prints is that you can pair them with any basics you have in your closet, they are all really versatile pieces for any occasion. We offer beautiful, unique, limited edition pieces using high quality fabrics for competitive prices. That is very hard to find in today’s fashion market.
HM: How did you ladies choose the Bakehouse Art Complex to be organization that you give back to?
C&F: Since Flavia came up with the idea of artTECA, and due to Claudia’s background working with non-profits, we knew we wanted to build a company that would make an impact our community.
This is why as part of our mission artTECA is committed to assisting art educational programs to expand the opportunity for art development in our local community. In order to achieve this, artTECA has partnered with Miami-based non-profit organization Bakehouse Art Complex (BAC) to support the organization’s art education programs for children by donating annually a percentage of sales. We chose BAC because it was an organization that we have known for a few years, and have known artists that worked there in year’s past. Also before artTECA was founded we had seen first hand their wonderful support to children’s arts education for public schools.
As we grow we not only have plans to increase our support to BAC, and hopefully other organizations, but also we wish to become more involved in the initiatives we support.
HM: This may go without saying, but do you guys consider yourself artists?
C&F: We have a deep respect for the word: Artist. Mostly we consider ourselves a very creative duo, because we can visualize our ideas and know exactly what we want, how we want it to look, feel, and fit etc. We are mixing two art forms and creating a new product; and although we do consider Fashion to be an art form, Artists are born with a certain handy skillset/ talent that we don’t consider we possess. However, we do consider we possess some artistic qualities such as passion, vision, and creativeness.
H&M: What are your goals for the company?
C&F: We want to become a brand that people collect, as if you were collecting art. In this case: wearable art. Our goal is for women to love our pieces and recognize them, and look for them because they want that unique piece that makes them feel comfortable and confident.
When it comes to design we want to collaborate with more artists and even with other fashion designers, and expand our designs capabilities.
You can learn more about artTECA here.
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