From the corset to the jumpsuit, via shoes, to tell the story of female emancipation

[On the cover: Salvatore Ferragamo, Scarpe décolleté, 1961 Milano, Palazzo Morando |Costume Moda Immagine, Inv. C1366 (© Comune di Milano – tutti i diritti riservati – Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine, Milano – Photo Giulia Bellezza 2022)]

The exhibition Momenti di Moda. Dal busto alla salopette (Moments of Fashion. From the bust to the jumpsuit) opened last September at Palazzo Morando in Milan; a journey through twentieth-century fashion told by clothes and accessories belonging to the Museum’s collection. It is a short journey, curated by Enrica Morini, Margherita Rosina, and Ilaria De Palma, through the transformations of fashion over the last century which also testifies to women’s emancipation. Starting from the corset and passing through the flappers of the Twenties, the elegance of the Thirties, the difficulties of the Second World War, and the tailoring of the Fifties, the journey ends with the birth of pret-à-porter in the Seventies, stigmatised by a jumpsuit – a symbol of youthful fashions of the period. To link the journey through the history of fashion to the theme of the Museum’s collections, is a 1963 jumpsuit by Mary Quant donated in 1981 by the English designer “to the new fashion museum in Milan”.

André Perugia, scarpe modello D’Orsay, 1924-1926 Milano, Palazzo Morando |Costume Moda Immagine, inv. C1191 (© Comune di Milano – tutti i diritti riservati – Palazzo Morando | Costume Moda Immagine, Milano – Photo Giulia Bellezza 2022)