Celebrating the personal style of Frida Kahlo
Dark braids, bursts of bright flowers, eclectic jewellery, traditional embroidery, painted lips and monobrow, Frida Kahlo is not only a feminist icon, but a fashion touchstone. Her meticulously cultivated look was not frivolous, but a tapestry of reference points and allusions that rendered her outfits highly symbolic – her Tehuana dresses as manifestations of traditional Mexican femininity, her long skirts concealing her eventual prothesis.
Frida's clothes were hidden away by her husband Diego Rivera after she died at the age of 47 in 1954, and they remained that way until they were unearthed in 2004. Now, as the contents of Frida Kahlo's wardrobe leave Mexico for the first time to be showcased in London, we track the wonderful ways in which she used clothes and cosmetics to transcend ideals and cultiavate her identity.
Frida often wore long, sweeping skirts that at first concealed her left leg – which was thinner than the other – and later shielded her prosthetic leg from plain sight following her lower leg amputation in 1953. The prosthetic leg, with it's famous red leather boot embellished in silken Chinese illustration, will be shown at the V&A exhibition as an object of joy, wonder and beauty, rather than one carrying the memory of pain.
