Once described as “one of the first captains of Italian history,” Wanda Miletti Ferragamo was a woman who masterfully combined the more traditional domestic female duties of the 60s with her passion for work and responsibility at the Salvatore Ferragamo brand. In the first chapter of her life, Wanda was a wife, mother and homemaker; in the second she was a businesswoman whose family remained the linchpin around which her life revolved.
Women in Balance, the latest exhibition at Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, is a multidisciplinary homage to Wanda Miletti Ferragamo and aims to paint an image of who Wanda was while shedding light on the countless other women, between the late 1950s and early 1960s, who balanced personal success with a devotion to their families. The notion that history evolves through a plurality of creative individuals and their reciprocal actions is at the heart of Women in Balance, encouraging us to recognise the manifold nature of the past. Wanda Ferragamo’s story, a story filled with depth and complexity, invites us to meet at the crossroads between an individual’s history and the history of Italian society at the time.
Following a series of choices that Wanda Ferragamo made when her husband Salvatore passed away, the exhibition intends to focus on the shared desire women had to shape their lives in ways that would help build a different society than the one they were born into. The exhibition comprises installations, photographs, fashion, paintings and film to give an extensive image of women’s history. In a lot of ways, this is an exhibition that serves as a mirror of contemporary society, a society where women continue to seek change and rebellion. Equally, it urges us to examine gender relationships under the current social context, so that we may consider an opportunity for a rebirth of society where new forms of gender equality exist.
Curated by Stefani Ricci and Elvira Valleri, ‘Women in Balance’ is open to public until May 2023 at Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Palazzo Spini Feroni, Florence.