“Indossa l’Arte” (“Art to Wear”) is a unique exhibition by Francesca Levi. The initiative happening in Milan in these days features seven dresses designed to create a dialogue between art, material, and movement.
From September 30 to October 3, 2026, the Marco Bertoli–M45 Art Gallery, located at Via Manzoni 45 in Milan, is hosting seven one-of-a-kind dresses, handcrafted and hand-painted, inspired by the styles of Joan Miró, Gustav Klimt, Lucio Fontana, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, and Katsushika Hokusai.
Each garment becomes the new canvas on which iconic masterpieces come to life, recreating each artist’s brushstrokes, colors, and use of materials in a completely original way.
The artist did not set out to transfer a painting onto a dress or to faithfully reproduce its image. Starting from the artwork, she isolated certain distinctive features—such as a mark, a color, a shape, or a compositional balance—and reworked them on the fabric’s surface. These elements are shifted, enlarged, or reduced in size and recomposed according to the dress’ architecture.
The fabric is not a static surface; rather, it follows the body, creates folds, reacts to light, and constantly shifts perspective. The design may cross the torso, continue onto the sleeves, or even disappear along one side and reappear on the back. In this way, the dress becomes a three-dimensional work of art to be observed from all angles.
In Klimt’s interpretation, gold-toned satin becomes a luminous surface crisscrossed by spirals, small geometric modules, metallic traces, and accents of color, extending all the way to the wrists and neck.
With Miró, Francesca Levi explores the power of line and color–red, blue, yellow, and black emerge against a neutral background through essential forms, subtle lines, and suspended figures.
Picasso’s geometric elements are transformed across different planes, while Kandinsky emerges in new geometric relationships and unexpected tensions between form and color.
The dress inspired by Fontana is minimalist. With just a few strokes, effects similar to the cut are recreated on the front, as well as in a fold at the center of the back of the dress. What is striking about Hokusai is the movement in “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”, translating the force of the water and the spray into two curved waves, one on each side of the dress.
These unique apparel items preserve the painting’s visible craftsmanship, and each dress remains a single exemplar piece, just like the gesture that created it.
Francesca Levi is an Italian artist and designer who trained at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. She later studied architecture, earned a degree in Industrial Design from the Scuola Politecnica di Design, and has worked across the fields of art, jewelry, furniture design, and fashion.