“Congratulations on your contribution to women’s beauty.” These few words, spoken by a very young woman, were enough for Salvatore Ferragamo. Wanda Miletti understand that she will be the woman of his life. Both come from Irpinia, she was only 18 years old, and he was 42, when they decided to crown their love, consecrated by a large family – after the wedding, celebrated on November 9, 1940, six children would be born – and from a work ethic that Wanda inherited and revived after the death of the “dream shoemaker” in 1960, continuing and expanding her husband’s business..
“I had never worked before in my life and therefore did not know where to start, moreover, I had no preparation for this,” says Wanda Ferragamo, who until 2018 led the family business, transforming the artisan workshop of women’s shoes. , already famous in the 1950s among Hollywood stars who flocked to Florence especially for a pair of bespoke shoes at the fashion house. “Before that, I took care of the house and children, which limited the education of women of my time. Now the family and the company had only one boss, which was me. balancing the responsibility of educating the kids while at the same time learning about my new role in the company. It was almost a sleight of hand that I became an expert at. I was trying to focus on a new product line, while two seconds later I had to respond to all the requests of my six children. How would I like to be remembered? Especially as a mother, a mother who has been lent to entrepreneurship.”
This very determined and strong-willed businesswoman Salvatore Ferragamo Museum with the company and the Ferragamo Foundation dedicates, a century after its birth, the exhibition Women in balance, 1955/1965. Open until 18. Opened in 2023 at the Palazzo Spini Ferroni in Florence, The exhibition traces the decisive years of the brand’s transition from Salvatore to Vanda through photographs, posters, clothing, accessories and a wealth of archival material., exploring what was the era of the Italian economic boom. The era of the first real social and cultural upheavals, which led not only to the personal self-affirmation of many women, but also to greater freedom for all.
In the experience of Wanda Ferragamo, one of the first “captains” of Italian industry, the exhibition identifies the stories of many other female figures, women of art, culture, politics, work.. Women in balance like her contributed to the modernization of the country and the building of a republican Italy. Each female experience that the exhibition evokes can be read as an original journey towards constructing a particular way of “being a woman”, the result of both historical context and personal research. To describe the tumultuous change of an era marked by economic growth, the installation project, signed by stage designer Maurizio Balo, reconstructs the domestic space of a bourgeois family of that period.. Each section corresponds to a separate room in the house: dining room, library, attic, kitchen, living room, girls room, wardrobe. The only sector taken out of context is the introductory room, which reproduces the office of Wanda Ferragamo with personal items that belonged to the “queen of shoes”, including the precious letters that she so loved to write to her children Fiamma, Ferruccio, Giovanna, Fulvia, Leonardo and Massimo, his employees , his second family.
“Do not conform to what is happening in the world badly,” he once wrote to his grandchildren, “but allow yourself to be transformed, improving your way of thinking, acting and being in harmony with everything good and pleasing to the Lord.” And again: “Everyone knows the importance of work, but few emphasize what other precious elements fuel the undertaking. In addition to the main idea, moral and cultural principles are crucial to ensure that the result moves forward and progresses, reaching fame and success. These principles are integrity, honesty, dedication, combined with professionalism, vision and passion for their work.”
Source: Elle