Equality Smells Better Than Flowers
Candido 1859
International Women’s Day 2023


Since it has funded my existence, I help out my parents’ family business with their addy stuff. As many people who grew up with a family business will know, “the store” basically is a member of the family. Ours is a 164 years old historic fashion department store in Salento, South Italy that wears my last name - meet Candido 1859.

The store is managed by my dad, who is a true feminist and employs 35 (35!!! That’s out of 40 total employees) amazing, independent women, many of whom have been working for the company for over 30 years.

For International Women’s Day, we have made posters aound the region of Salento reading [both in English and Italian] Equality Smells Better Than Flowers.

Why?

Because, unfortunately, Italy is still very problematic when it comes to gender equality. Being a woman, let alone a professional and especially in the South, still comes with a lot of challenges and prejudice - which I’ve experienced first hand even in the limited time I spend at home.

More specificaly, I hate that traditionally in Italy International Women’s Day is celebrated by gifting flowers to mothers and girlfriends, thanking women for everything they do - which often includes being stuck in painfully traditional family roles.

So we created posters that did something that the rest of the South wasn’t doing. We created posters that didn’t thank mothers for cooking and girlfriends for being patient, but we wanted remind Italian men to fight for women’s equality rather than accepting things as they are, whether that’s by questioning their prejudice or being an active ally, and to remind women not to let society cover its gaps with beautiful but meaningless flowers, using the traditional flower, the mimosa. 

Designed by Hemi Patel.
LinkedIn Post Here.
.