Frida Kahlo

Pink and Gold

Frida Kahlo was in immense physical and mental anguish and her costume was her facade. Her life was steeped with suffering, from the chronic cheating and blatant misogony she endured by the hand of her husband, Diego Rivera, to the phisical ailments that she suffered beginning in her early life after a horrific car accident. By the end of her life she was quite literally amputating toes, I think her coping mechanism was her costume. She donned gold accessories, braided together flowers from her garden into headpieces, swiped on strong lipstick and conquered the day.

She was pushing boundaries in her art was we all know. This transcended into her wardrobe. While her contemporaries with were dressing in European styles, Frida donned the Tehuana dress, which comes from a matriarchal culture of Oaxaca. At 19 she posed for a family photo in a suit and years later painted the famous “Self Portrait With Chopped Hair.”

When you think Frida, you should think :

Gender Fluid

Communism

Mexican Revolution

Gay

Digging Deeper:

I recommend reading her diary

Take a visit to Casa Azul. It is on my wish list !