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.
At an early stage in her life, Frida sometimes dressed as a man in three-piece tweed suits and ties, as in this family photograph which was taken by her father when she was around seventeen. As ever, here she is defying convention, jovially playing an unexpected role and challenging our notion of gender. Later, Kahlo would marry fellow artist Rivera, but continue to see other men and women, and never tried to hide the fluidity of her sexuality.
