Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up

Frida Kahlo (1907–1954), as an artist and a woman, has a unique international appeal. Her instantly recognizable work draws extensively on her life and her extraordinarily personal reflections upon it.

On Kahlo’s death, her husband, Diego Rivera (1886–1957), ordered that her most private possessions be locked away until 15 years after his death. The bathroom in which her belongings were stored in fact remained unopened until 2004. Through this incredible archive, Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up gives readers a unique window into Kahlo’s life. It will focus on the personal, combining her prosthetics, jewelry, and clothes with self-portraits, diary entries, and letters to build an intimate portrait of the artist through her possessions, setting this in the context of her political and social beliefs.

 - Includes six inset booklets, containing photographs of Kahlo’s most intimate possessions
 - 16 page section showcasing Kahlo’s wardrobe, specially conserved and mounted
 - Spectacular details of embellishments and textiles

About the authors:

Claire Wilcox is Senior Curator of Fashion at the V&A and Professor in Fashion Curation at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London. She curated the exhibitions Vivienne Westwood (V&A, 2004), The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947–1957 (V&A, 2007) and Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2015), and edited the accompanying catalogues.
Circe Henestrosa is an independent curator and Head of the School of Fashion at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. She curated the exhibition Appearances Can Be Deceiving: The Dresses of Frida Kahlo (Museo Frida Kahlo, Mexico City, 2012).