IN HER SHOES - Personal exhibition by elisa garosi - 29.04 // 04.05.2026
IN HER SHOES – Personal exhibition by elisa garosi
CURATORIAL TEXT
Credits
Cured by: Elisa Garosi, Sharon Marini, Marcella Minutillo
Exhibition design e allestimento: Pietro Cusi, Elisa Garosi
The exhibition
Info
đź“Ť Alveare Culturale Studio
Via Carlo Imbonati, 12 – Milan
📆 From April 29th to May 4th 2026
🎉 Opening: Wensday April 29th aprile, from 18:30 to 21:30
🎟 free entry, rsvp
🕒 Opening hours: Wednesday–Friday, 12:00–19:00 // Saturday-Sunday, 14:00–18:00
1. “The Flower Woman”
Albert Joseph Penot
Oil on canvas, ca. 1930
Private collection, digitized for the public domain
Against the backdrop of fin-de-siècle Paris, where sensuality blends with allegory and the human figure merges with nature, her attire takes centre stage. Her garments feature leaf-like decorations that create the illusion of a blossoming flower, evoking the boudoir aesthetics of the era with a touch of fantasy. This encapsulates the essence of Albert Joseph Pénot, an artist renowned for his depictions of the female form in surreal, esoteric, demonic or fairy-tale contexts.
2. “Betty Broadbent, The Tattooed Venus”
Ray Olsen
Pix Magazine
Photograph, April 4, 1938
Collection of the New South Wales State LibraryÂ
During a beauty pageant at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, Betty Broadbent defied prevailing aesthetic norms by proudly displaying her body, which was covered with around 560 tattoos. She had taken up this art form at the age of 14 and had worked in various circuses. To her, clothes were merely a curtain that could be strategically opened and closed over her body. She was one of the first women to become a financially independent tattoo artist.
3. “Leg makeup during the war years”
A service offered by a “Liquid Stockings”Â
Counter for leg makeup, 1941
National Museum of American History
With the outbreak of the Second World War, all nylon production was requisitioned to meet wartime needs, such as the manufacture of parachutes, tents and ropes. Consequently, at a time when going out bare-legged was still considered improper, stockings became a rare commodity on the black market. To solve this problem, the cosmetics industry launched the first lines of ‘liquid stockings’, or leg makeup. Achieving flawless results was not always simple; women helped one another and many department stores set up ‘leg bars’. However, this was not mere vanity: leg makeup symbolised ingenuity, community, resilience and creativity in the face of wartime hardship
4. “The Swing Mikado (1938)”
Performers from the Jitterbug Chorus Line of “Swing Mikado,” a jazz adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta
Lafayette Theater in Harlem, Federal Theatre Project, 1938
New York Public Library
This image is a testament to the cultural vibrancy of American theatre in the late 1930s. It depicts a performer from the Jitterbug Chorus Line at the Lafayette in Harlem, which was at the heart of New York’s entertainment scene. The show was produced by the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal programme launched by Roosevelt to employ artists and bring quality theatre to the masses during the Depression. By setting the classic English operetta in an exotic Pacific island setting, the production offered audiences an escape from reality, and the frenetic Jitterbug dance definitively broke down the barriers between ‘high’ and ‘popular’ culture, ensuring this adaptation’s resounding success.
5. “The Harem Servant”
Paul Désiré Trouillebert
Oil on canvas, 1874
Jules Chéret Museum of Fine Arts, Nice
A precious necklace sits beneath her face, and a chiselled belt cinches her slender waist. A wide, dark skirt creates a striking contrast in colour; her delicate hands hold the edge of a tray. A thin chain runs between her wrist and forearm — an exotic, sombre detail. It is an allusion to idealised submission, a delicate element pointing to the dark taste that fuelled the Orientalist imagination of the nineteenth century.
6. “Ace of Diamonds”
Exhibit Supply Company
Stereoscopic photographic print
Chicago, 1927
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, USA
This 1927 “Arcade Card”, produced by the Exhibit Supply Company, is one of a series of collectible portraits of women that were distributed in Chicago’s penny arcades. Blending the theme of gambling with the alluring charm of Orientalism, the work anticipates the pin-up phenomenon by about two decades, representing an early testament to the culture of mass collecting in Roaring Twenties America.
7. “Peggy Ryan, dancer and artist”
Jones, David R
Photograph, date unknown
John Oxley Department of Brisbane
Queensland State Library, Australia
Peggy Ryan was a dancer with an explosive, athletic and irreverent style, far removed from the objectifying male gaze of 1940s Hollywood. Often paired with Donald O’Connor, she was a tap and jive master, and their sketches were among the most irreverent. Ryan subverted the purpose of every item of clothing in her wardrobe: fishnet stockings were no longer purely seductive, and her outfits had to allow for highly intense performances while showcasing her musculature. Her legacy was to treat the body as an instrument of art and work, an approach she passed on through the founding of dance companies such as “Ryan’s Rebels”, “TNT’s” and “Peg’s Legs”.
8. “Woman in a striped dress”
Harper, Alvan S.
Photograph, Tallahassee, Florida, 1890
Alvan S. Harper Collection, African American Women
Florida Memory, Florida State Library and Archives
This portrait by Alvan S. Harper, a photographer who documented all sections of society at the time, shows that having one’s portrait taken in a studio in 1890 was a formal occasion and an opportunity to present the best version of oneself. The subject’s refined, late-Victorian, striped dress with a fitted bodice, high collar and voluminous skirt demonstrates that posing for a portrait in modest yet detailed attire was a status symbol to be passed down to future generations.
9. “Alda, “Prince Igor” ”
Bain News Service Photo Collection
Glass negatives, ca. 1920–1925
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division,
Washington, USA
Frances Alda, a soprano from New Zealand, was the undisputed prima donna at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for twenty years. Renowned for her vocal purity and crystalline tone, she was a pioneer in music recording, immediately recognising its potential. Unlike many other divas, who viewed recording technology with suspicion, fearing that it would ‘steal’ their soul or reveal flaws in their singing, Alda embraced it wholeheartedly, leaving behind one of the most comprehensive discographies of the early 20th-century. Her fame shifted from being dependent on her performances on stage to being rooted in her recordings that graced people’s living rooms. In this photo, she portrays Princess Yaroslavna in Prince Igor, embodying the deep sorrow and resilience of the Russian people.
10. “The Girls of Nectarine No. 9”
Adolfo Farsari
Photographic Album “Images of Japan”
Hand-colored silver gelatin print, ca. 1885
Minneapolis Institute of Art
The women depicted are maiko (geisha apprentices) or yĹ«jo (prostitutes) from the Nectarine No. 9 brothel in Yokohama. The photographer was Adolfo Farsari, an Italian adventurer from Vicenza who arrived in Japan in 1873 and developed a passion for photography. Within a few years, he had become one of the country’s most influential photographers, capturing its final traditional era on the eve of the Meiji modernisation period.
11. “Young Woman Smoking”
Keesing, Roger M.
Photograph, Malaita, Solomon Islands, September 1979
Roger M. Keesing Collection
San Diego, University of California Library
The image, drawn from a vast academic archive, is the work of Roger M. Keesing, one of the 20th century’s leading anthropologists. His photographs were not taken for aesthetic purposes, but rather as part of an immersive approach aimed at ethnographic documentation of the peoples of Oceania. By studying social organisation, languages and local cults, Keesing aimed to bear witness to the tenacious resistance of these communities to forced Christianisation and colonial assimilation. This photograph captures the proud daily lives and traditional adornments of a people deeply rooted in their ancestral identity, despite the pressures of modernisation.
12. “The Carandini Ladies, one of Australia’s first families dedicated to opera”
Charles Hewitt
Hand-colored photograph, Sydney, 1875
Fashion in Australia: Costumes and Dresses for Opera, Operetta, and Music
Collection of the State Library of New South WalesÂ
Marie Carandini was an Englishwoman who emigrated to Australia. She founded a travelling opera troupe and passed on her profession to her daughters, who are pictured here with her. These women undertook gruelling journeys to perform in the most remote locations, including gold prospectors’ camps. As women performing before audiences of strangers and migrants were often subject to prejudice in the 19th century, the family adopted a brilliant marketing strategy: they had themselves photographed and always displayed an aristocratic wardrobe. These imposing gowns became an impeccable shield, guaranteeing them respectability and financial success.
13. “Reclining Woman Smoking”
Silver albumen print from a glass negative with hand-applied colors, dated between 1870 and 1890
Donated by Jennifer and Joseph Duke
The Metropolitan Museum
In the 19th century, the image of a woman smoking was powerful: while it might have been seen as a sign of questionable morality in Europe, in the Orientalist context of photography, it emphasised cultural otherness and a certain kind of exotic hedonism. The symbolism of smoke, representing sensual and transgressive idleness, appealed to the fantasies of European travellers on the “Grand Tour”. Such scenes and portraits were meticulously staged in photography studios.
14. “Tunisian Jewish women”
Lehnert & Landrock Publisher
Postcard, Tunis, 1907
Dorot Jewish Division, Jews in Africa
Digital Collection of the New York Public Library
This vintage postcard depicts three figures in Tunis wearing traditional dresses. A stiff kouffia headdress forms the focal point of the sefsari, a large, draped silk cloth wrapped around the woman’s body and extending to cover her seroual baggy trousers. The image is an example of Orientalist photography, immortalising the customs of another country to satisfy the curiosity of Western travelers and celebrate the era’s taste for the exotic.
16. “Young women making their debut in society, accompanied by their younger bridesmaids”
Hand-colored photograph, Queensland, Australia, 1948
Queensland State Library, Australia
This photograph captures a cotillion, otherwise known as a debutante ball. This rite of passage originated in European monarchies and marked the formal transition to adulthood (or, more specifically, marriageable age). In the absence of a monarchy, families adopted this ritual to encourage endogamy, or the practice of marrying within one’s own social group. The aesthetic reflects the formality of the post-war boom: the main debutante’s pink dress, inspired by Dior’s New Look, stands out. The younger bridesmaids participate in the ritual, preparing for the day when they will take centre stage.
17. “Paulette Goddard”
Photoplay Magazine Publishing Company
Signed portrait for a magazine
Chicago, November 1942
Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Enhanced by a vibrant Technicolor aesthetic, this portrait celebrates the actress Paulette Goddard, a Hollywood icon with a strong, pragmatic and nonconformist spirit. Defying the conventions of her time, she maintained her financial independence from the studios and her husbands, including Charlie Chaplin, with whom she starred in Modern Times. After missing out on the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, she cemented her legacy with her performance in Women (1939), a unique film in Hollywood history for its all-female cast.
18. “Women of Dagestan”
Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky
Photograph, Views of the Caucasus and the Black Sea Region, ca. 1910
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Washington, USA
With the support of Tsar Nicholas II, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky created a monumental visual archive documenting the diversity and vastness of the Russian Empire. He installed a darkroom on a train and set off on his journey. This photograph shows women from Dagestan in the North Caucasus. Their fabrics, headdresses and accessories were precious cultural and anthropological artefacts, not merely aesthetic details. The project lasted for around ten years, but was left unfinished due to the historical upheavals of the time.
19. “If union families don’t look for the union label, who will?”
International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union
Photographic poster, 1965
Yanker Poster Collection
Library of Congress, Washington, USA
This is an advertising poster from the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, a 20th-century American textile union. By depicting women checking labels, the campaign aimed to promote ethical consumption and encourage people to choose clothing that respects workers’ rights. This simple act transforms a purchase into a conscious decision, elevating it to a moral legacy and reminding viewers that protecting rights is a collective commitment spanning generations.