Frida’s Wardrobe: A Reminder

Museo Frida Kahlo is finally able to exhibit Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe. I’m very excited about this even if I don’t get to go to it in person.  Reports this week of Frida Kahlo’s Wardrobe (and Messynessychic.com brilliant display of photographs ) serve as a very important reminder of just how beautiful Ms. Frida was —- in a way not readily apparent to everyone.

Frida Kahlo’s body was ‘broken’ from the get-go. She had polio as a child. A bus accident at the age of 18 left her with crippling pain, many surgeries through out her life, and a body full of scars. She often wrote of feeling ‘crippled’ and disfigured. But instead of succumbing to the despair, Frida decorated herself like no one else. Body casts became canvases. Every day outfits were full costumes.  She didn’t necessarily dress to her time period either, focusing instead on indigenous costumes of people’s from her native Mexico.

So thankful that we are reminded this week of such a style icon who turned her world and ours around by taking a fate most would have seen as despairing and showing us that the body can truly be art.