By Hunter Oatman-Stanford
Although not in the way one might think, Frida Carlo wore her sleeves in her mantle. In real life, as on the canvases of many of her self-portraits, Carlo used fashion to channel her physical and emotional insecurities into statements of strength, heritage, and beauty. For nearly 50 years, her personal wardrobe remained hidden from scholars and admirers. It was closed shortly after Carlo's death in 1954.
"Because of its geometry, it's the perfect dress to hide Carlo's flaws and distinguish her from her famous husband."
When Carlo passed away after her 47th birthday, her husband and fellow artist Diego Rivera began stashing her personal possessions in a bathroom in their Mexico City home. After Rivera's death in 1957, their home, also known as La Casa Azul or “The Blue House,” became the Museo Frida Kahlo. But shortly before Rivera's death, he instructed close friend Dolores Olmedo that the room containing Frida's wardrobe should remain locked for the next 15 years. Olmedo took Rivera's request so seriously that she eventually decided to seal the room until her death in 2002.
Over the past decade, the museum has been able to catalog and organize the contents of the bathroom, which included hundreds of documents, photographs and drawings. In addition to around 300 articles of clothing and personal objects, attention was drawn to a pair of earrings given to Carlo by Picasso and her customized prosthetics. Together with Vogue Mexico, the museum opened the first exhibition of Carlo's personal garments, presenting her clothing through the lens of disability and female empowerment, as well as her continuing influence on fashion. The show focuses on her iconic style, often consisting of traditional Tehuana clothing, to project her feminist and socialist beliefs, and to hide her debilitating wounds.
Among the photos...
Above: Frida Carlo wears a signature colorful look. Photo - Nicholas Murray. Above: Frida displays three elements of Tehuana dress in 1939—a floral headdress, a square-cut blouse, and a long skirt.
Curated by Circe Henestrosa, who lives in Mexico City and is director of the fashion program at Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore, the exhibition ran for a full year until November 22, 2013. The exhibition title, “Looks Can Be Deceiving: Frida Carlo's Wardrobe,” is a reference to a drawing found in this secret archive, which depicts the physical vulnerability of Carlo's naked body through the outline of a dress. In addition to the museum exhibition, Henestrosa documented Carlo's belongings with photographer Isuchi Miyako for a book titled "Frida" to be published.
Recently, Henestrosa gave Collectors Weekly a look at Carlo's hidden wardrobe and the artist's complex relationship with fashion.
Henestrosa: I actually brought the project to the museum. I was living in London and preparing for my MA when I discovered Frida Carlo's wardrobe. My curatorial thesis focused on her wardrobe and how Carlo constructed her identity through elements of disability and tradition. All the experts have said that she wore this Tehuana dress to please Diego Rivera. I don't deny that they are inspirations to each other, and I think she has intrinsic reasons for choosing that outfit to build her own identity. That's when I started looking more closely and found all these clues.
For example, Carlo had polio when she was 6 years old, so her right leg was shorter than the other. She describes in her diary how she built up support in the shoe, wearing three or four socks as an extra heel to flatten her right leg. She started wearing long skirts from a young age, another interesting tip. Although she was very young, Carlo made an effort to use clothing to hide her flaws. She was solving the problems of activism really through fashion.
We also found a photo of her maternal family dressed in Tehuana tradition. That photo was fundamental to our research because it shows that Carlo had this Tehuana heritage before he met Rivera.
In this 1890 portrait, Carlo's maternal family wore Tehuana-style clothing. Frida's mother Mathilde Calderon is circled in the center. Courtesy Museo Frida Carlo.
...what is Tehuana style?
Henestrosa: The Tehuana Dress comes from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southeastern Mexico in the state of Oaxaca. If you go to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, all the women are dressed in this traditional style. It consists of three parts.
"The more she suffers or the more pain she feels, the more beautiful she becomes."
You have a very heavy headdress made of pleats and flowers and ribbons, so the beauty is concentrated around the head. Then you have a huipil, a short blouse, usually lots of jewelry, and finally a long skirt. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is a matrimonial society, therefore
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