Sorelle d’Italia: The Luxury of Resistance © Matilde Piazzi and Nadia Del Frate.
“Renewal means the transformative potential of unity,” say winners of Female in Focus People’s Choice 2024
Since its founding in 1954 by Bolognese corset-maker Ada Masotti, the prevailing image of La Perla, Italy’s leading couture lingerie brand, has been one of lace and luxury. Fantasies of femininity finely wrought through the highest quality fabrics; desire and sensuality given shape in delicate designs. While the styles shifted with the decades – from the flower-power palettes of the 60s to the more liberal cuts of the 70s, the suit-friendly lingerie sets of the 80s, and beyond – La Perla remained at the needle-sharp apex of artisanship and glamour.
‘Portrait of Pierangela Cernera, also known as Piera’, the winning photograph in last year’s Female in Focus x Nikon People’s Choice Award, presents a different image of La Perla to the world. Taken by Italian photographers Matilde Piazzi and Nadia Del Frate, it pays homage – quite literally – to the women behind the lace: the workers of Bologna, the brand’s birthplace, who craft the historic lingerie. Submitted in response to the 2024 Female in Focus theme of Renewal, it tells a multilayered story of collective resistance and revival.
The portrait is part of Sorelle d’Italia: The Luxury of Resistance, Piazzi and Del Frate’s multimedia project documenting the “peaceful yet resolute” struggle of La Perla’s workforce to defend their jobs and protest against financial speculation after the company was declared insolvent in 2023. From the outset, the workers’ movement was rooted in sisterhood and solidarity, with twenty-four women leading the charge and founding the cultural association Unicheunite. Piazzi and Del Frate worked closely with 19 of them to bring Sorelle d’Italia to life. Comprising a 12-panel photo sequence, a portrait series, a video interview, and a written text, the project seeks to platform the workers’ struggle as “a manifesto of contemporary heroic resistance”.
Piazzi and Del Frate’s collaborative approach dates back to 2022, after meeting on a photography course taught by Italo-Palestinian artist Mustafa Sabbagh. The pair quickly developed an emotional and artistic affinity, with Del Frate’s technical skill and contemporary expertise complementing Piazzi’s historical, philosophical, and iconographic research processes. They worked together more closely in La Perla’s e-commerce team before being made redundant at the start of 2023.
@Matilde Piazzi and Nadia Del Frate.
“They welcomed us as equals, which allowed us to build trust gradually, forming a meaningful bond.”
“When the company collapsed and we lost our jobs, we knew we couldn’t just walk away. Our collaboration began as a way to support each other as women working in the challenging and still male-dominated field of photography,” they explain. “When we saw that the La Perla workers had taken a stand, we felt that the struggle was shared and that we had to be part of it, despite coming from different backgrounds.”
Piazzi and Del Frate first made contact with the Unicheunite in May 2024 through Stefania Prestopino, a graphic designer at La Perla and a union representative. Shortly afterwards, they travelled to a parish hall in the town of Castenaso, just outside Bologna, to meet the rest of the group in their workshop. The space was crammed with sewing machines, ironing boards, and lace in every shade – remnants of the high-end lingerie the workers once produced – alongside protest banners, hand-painted signs, and sketches of the group’s new logo: a chain of paper dolls holding hands. For the photographers, “It was a story we felt we had to tell.”
At first, the workers were surprised by the proposed collaboration, hesitant about becoming “the faces” of the cause. But after lengthy talks about the vision behind the project, they began to embrace it. “They welcomed us as equals, which allowed us to build trust gradually, forming a meaningful bond,” says Del Frate. “From then on, we shared every step of the process – production, design, development. We’re truly honoured when we hear them refer to us publicly as sisters.”
“Our references are never merely decorative – they’re always interpreted through a feminist and working-class lens, in tribute to a living, contemporary story”
True to Piazzi’s research-based approach to image-making, the project takes its cues from Italian art history. At the heart of the series is a sequence of 12 photographs portraying the workers in procession, hand-in-hand. It draws inspiration from Aurora (1614), a legendary fresco by Bolognese baroque painter Guido Reni. The scene depicts the Roman goddess of dawn as she brings forth a new day, leading the way for Apollo and the goddesses of time. “The metaphor felt especially apt to represent the La Perla workers’ ongoing struggle; months of remaining united, practising mutual aid, and holding fast to one another,” Piazzi explains.
The duo also looked to Mexican muralism, “both for its political clarity and its capacity to merge realism with imagination”, as well as the photographic work of Lewis Hine, August Sander and Diane Arbus. “Our references are never merely decorative – they’re always interpreted through a feminist and working-class lens, in tribute to a living, contemporary story.”
The winning image, one of 11 individual portraits in the series, spotlights Pierangela Cernera, a central figure in the Unicheunite, who has worked in La Perla’s cutting department for 24 years. On the day of the shoot, the photographers asked each woman to bring an object from her workspace. “Piera brought scraps of La Perla’s world-famous lace and playfully draped them over her head, almost covering herself completely. In that gesture, the image emerged,” Piazzi recounts. “She would become our Madonna of the factory floor, with tailoring scissors in place of the cross, and her hand raised in a gesture of indication – an image suspended somewhere between Antonello da Messina’s Madonna and the cinematic figures of Aki Kaurismäki.”
“By inviting photographers to explore renewal, the award celebrated the power of the medium to document hope, progress, and the infinite possibilities that come with starting anew – values that resonate deeply with Nikon’s own spirit of creativity and continuous evolution.”
Ruby Nicholson, Senior Communications Manager, Nikon
Ruby Nicholson, Senior Communications Manager at Nikon, believes the portrait captivated voters of the Female in Focus People’s Choice Award (2024 was the first time the category was introduced) with its striking and enigmatic qualities. “Within this single frame, we clearly see the strength and conviction of Pierangela Cernera, yet the lace partially concealing her face invites curiosity and leaves her story tantalisingly unfinished,” she says. “There’s a balance of revelation and mystery that draws viewers in, encouraging them to connect emotionally and wonder about the layers of identity and purpose behind her gaze, and the cause for which she stands.”
Female in Focus was relaunched last year after a two-year hiatus, making the theme of Renewal even more fitting in Nicholson’s eyes: “By inviting photographers to explore renewal, the award celebrated the power of the medium to document hope, progress, and the infinite possibilities that come with starting anew – values that resonate deeply with Nikon’s own spirit of creativity and continuous evolution.”
More than two years since the workers began their fight, a fresh start appears to be on the horizon for La Perla. In June, the company was officially acquired by American entrepreneur Peter Kern, saving it from liquidation. The Unichuenite’s story is far from over, however, with the workers continuing to advocate for more inclusive design principles and for the value of ethical and sustainable labour practices. As they wrote in their manifesto, a text exhibited alongside the photographs of Sorelle d’Italia and also voiced in a recording – “We, workers of La Perla… fight for the survival of a company founded by a pioneer of female entrepreneurship and for the preservation of a world of skills and knowledge passed down through generations.”
“As the workers have often repeated, this long dispute taught them that alone nothing moves, but together everything does,” say Piazzi and Del Frate. “Renewal, for us, really means the transformative potential of unity.”
The 2025 edition of Female in Focus x Nikon is now open. An international jury of industry leaders will select 20 single images and two bodies of work, which will be exhibited in a group show at Photo Ireland in Dublin and 1014 Gallery in London.
Thanks to our partnership with Nikon, the photographers behind the two winning series will also receive a Z Series mirrorless camera and two NIKKOR Z lenses of their choice.
Photographers may submit one single image free of charge. To maximise your chances, become a Digital Access or Full Access Member to submit up to 10 single images or one complete series.