7 times pasta left the plate

Ever since I started designing a line of gold and silver jewelry inspired by pasta, I have been filling my mind, my memories and my camera roll with references.

You find them in Italian design, fashion, contemporary art, cinema and music. Soft, intertwined, imperfect yet incredibly harmonious forms that almost seem to draw in space.

Here is a small selection of my 7 favorites:

Artisia — Edible Reveries (2026) Barilla

During Milan Design Week 2026, Artisia, Barilla’s experimental project dedicated to 3D pasta, presented Edible Reveries, an immersive installation curated by Studio Yellowdot in the Porta Venezia Design District.

Through 3D printed furniture, soft lighting and pasta inspired forms, the project transformed pasta into a true aesthetic language, suspended between design, food and a dreamlike atmosphere.

As part of the same project, a 3D printed strand of spaghetti helped bring pasta into the world of contemporary experimental design, ultimately leading to a Compasso d’Oro win.

Photo by Andrea Fongo

 

Spaghetti Chair — Giandomenico Belotti for Alias (1979)

First presented in New York in the late 1970s, the Spaghetti Chair, designed by Giandomenico Belotti for Alias, has become an icon of Italian design.

Its minimal steel frame is woven with slender PVC strands that instantly evoke a tangle of spaghetti. Light, essential and remarkably contemporary even today.

Photo of Alias

 

Fish Design — Gaetano Pesce (1996–2000s)

Born in the 1990s from the collaboration between Gaetano Pesce and artisan Andrea Corsi, Fish Design turned resin, color and imperfection into a design language of its own.

Vases, mirrors and objects with dripping, layered surfaces were handmade using extruders that created actual “spaghetti” of resin. The result was radical, free spirited and unmistakably Italian.

 

 Moschino —  Adrian Appiolaza (2025)

With Moschino, pasta becomes part of the pop fashion vocabulary.

From Jeremy Scott’s irreverent collections to Adrian Appiolaza’s recent spaghetti bag, food is turned into something to wear, somewhere between humor, provocation and desire. Spaghetti, tomato and basil leave the plate and become clutches and surreal accessories, playing with the codes of kitsch, luxury and Italian culture.

 

Diamanti — Ferzan Ozpetek (2024)

In Ferzan Ozpetek’s Diamanti, there is a scene where Mara Venier prepares lasagna, turning pasta into something much more than food: a shared gesture, an act of care and a domestic ritual.

It becomes a moment of connection between women, shaped by shared memories and a deeply Italian sense of everyday life.

MAPPE, Spaghetti — Touring Club Italiano (2024)

I came across MAPPE/Spaghetti by chance at the Fiera dei Librai in Bergamo. It is the third issue of Touring Club Italiano’s magazine book, built around stories, places and different takes on a single theme.

It is a beautiful editorial object that turns spaghetti into a cultural lens, through reportage, photography, illustration and storytelling. 

And for the soundtrack?

“The Spaghetti Incident?” — Guns N’ Roses (1993)

In 1993, Guns N’ Roses brought spaghetti into pop culture with The Spaghetti Incident?, a punk covers album with a deliberately ironic and provocative title.

Any other ideas? Let me know in the comments.