What happens when pasta meets fashion and design? Archivio Mantero presents Variation 01: David Rivillo x Archivio Mantero / Pasta Confidences

Archivio Mantero presents Variazione01, one year after the first edition of the project, when the archive took its first step toward exploring collaborations with a contemporary and multifaceted vision. The inaugural Variazione featured a collaboration with Giorgio Di Salvo, the designer who transformed textile memory into three silk-and-carbon kites, now exhibited in the archive. This new creative chapter by Archivio Mantero turns pasta into a visual language, where culinary culture and textile design meet in an unexpected way.

David Rivillo x Archivio Mantero: where pasta meets fashion and design

For Variazione 01, Archivio Mantero engaged in a dialogue with David Rivillo, a Venezuelan chemist and pasta designer based in Porto Alegre, Brazil. His research begins with observation: nature, architecture, textiles, art, and design all become sources of inspiration for his creativity. Pasta, a symbol of culinary culture, becomes a material to be explored, natural ingredients and measured gestures transform it into complex surfaces, where color, pattern, and texture interact with aesthetic sensitivity.

David Rivillo, the chemist and pasta designer who works with natural pigments

Each of David Rivillo’s creations is crafted with precision and care, much like a silk fabric, carrying the same refinement as Mantero’s accessories. At the core of his work lies a deep research into natural pigments, their origin and their aesthetic potential when applied to matter. Cacao, spirulina, turmeric, paprika, spinach, beetroot, charcoal, and other ingredients are studied for their ability to give color and form to pasta, creating unexpected hues and textures. His experimentation merges chemical expertise with artistry and visual intuition. David Rivillo doesn’t simply make pasta, he builds edible objects that demand attention and contemplation, translating the intensity of a creative studio into tangible form. Each piece carries the precision of craftsmanship and the freedom of invention, transforming a familiar food into a sensory experience in dialogue with the textile world. His tools and processes share deep affinities with those of the textile industry, creating a bridge between memory and innovation, between artisanal gesture and contemporary creativity.

The project in the words of Laura Fedriga, Creative Director of Atelier and Archive

“Approaching an icon of Italian culture like pasta with an international partner gave the project an ironic and experimental dimension, showing that innovation can sometimes emerge through playfulness. The Variazione represents a concrete opportunity to build a strong identity and demonstrate the project’s potential, the infinite scope of Archivio Mantero. The format involves selecting individuals worldwide with shared sensibilities to develop ideas together, using the archive’s unlimited resources, Mantero’s creative team, and the annual contribution of an external artist. Pasta Confidences is a whispered secret that tells of craftsmanship, manual skill, taste, and technique,” says creative director Laura Fedriga.

David Rivillo added: “For me, pasta is much more than food, it’s an artistic medium capable of connecting culture, science, and emotion. My process begins with observing the world, anything can become inspiration. With Archivio Mantero, this approach found fertile ground: exploring textile memory, understanding its patterns and layers allowed me to translate them into pasta forms and colors that tell stories of history, technique, and craftsmanship. Collaborating with Mantero was incredibly stimulating: seeing how they think about color, rhythm, and composition gave me a new perspective on the creative process, not only as food design but as a visual expression. Each creation requires a measured gesture and meticulous construction, reminiscent of both artisanal and scientific work. It’s a practice where respect for material meets the freedom of invention, where every color, every texture, every detail tells a unique story.”

The result? Staron & Fils

The inspiration takes shape in the Staron & Fils collection, one of the most intricate and prestigious within the archive, featuring fabrics and ribbons produced between 1928 and 1972 by the historic French maison of Saint-Étienne. Fine yarns, metallic threads, refined decorations, Staron & Fils mastered the art of technical excellence and aesthetic sophistication. The preserved textiles showcase patterns - printed and jacquard, floral and geometric, monochrome and multicolor - crafted using exceptional techniques such as velours au sabre, chiné, and moiré, where every detail reveals decades of experimentation. David Rivillo embraced this complexity as a starting point, reinterpreting historical shapes and translating them into tangible matter. Pasta Confidences is a poetic act of transposition: the archive doesn’t just preserve history: it brings it to life through a unique culinary practice, reaffirming itself as a space for observation and research, where culture, technique, and imagination converge in a sensitive, intimate dialogue.