Art x Fashion Edit #43
Massimo Catalani magnifies the simplicity of peppers by painting them monumental. Born in Rome in 1960 and trained as an architect, he spent years designing spaces before turning fully to painting. That background never left him. You can see it in his canvases: the rigor of scale, the geometry of placement, the insistence on structure. But instead of cathedrals, Catalani builds monuments out of food: anchovies, pasta, tomatoes, friggitelli. He enlarges them until they stop being everyday objects and start reading like icons.
In Friggitello, the pepper glows a soft, almost luminous pale yellow. It stretches across the canvas with quiet drama, stripped of context yet charged with presence. The humble vegetable becomes a kind of secular relic: ordinary, but vibrating with energy.
That’s the mood I wanted to bring into my outfit. A sharply tailored blazer frames the body like Catalani frames his subject, giving structure to simplicity. A pared-back tank and clean denim serve as the neutral ground, like canvas beneath pigment. Then comes the accent: a sculptural bag in the same pale yellow as his pepper, carrying the artwork’s chromatic echo into daily life. Pale-toned flats keep the look in motion, never static, because Catalani’s peppers may be still on the canvas but they pulse with Mediterranean heat.
It’s a reminder that style, like Catalani’s practice, thrives on elevation. Take the everyday, a pepper, a pair of jeans, and frame it differently. Suddenly, it holds weight. The bag is more than just an accessory; the pepper is more than just food. Both ask to be seen, not glanced at. Both remind us that beauty often hides in plain sight, waiting to be scaled up and reframed.
The Splurge
Golden Goose Blazer ($1,150)
MiuMiu Tank Top ($1,170)
Isabel Marant Jeans ($590)
BOYY Hungry Chili Handbag ($1,475)
MM6 Maison Margiela Flats ($1,221)
(More) Affordable Options
P.A.R.O.S.H. Blazer ($694)
MM6 Maison Margiela Tank Top ($191)
Closed Jeans ($330)
BOYY Chili Everyday Handbag ($650)
MM6 Maison Margiela Ballerinas ($450)
mabou 