V&A to host first-ever exhibition of Frida Kahlo's clothes and personal belongings outside Mexico

Frida Kahlo’s clothes, jewellery, make up and other belongings will be going on display at the V&A on 16 June 2018.

The new exhibition Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up will be the first time Frida Kahlo’s intimate items are displayed outside the artist’s home country. The focus of the exhibition will be on the ways in which the renowned female artist constructed her identity through the 200 items on show. The exhibition will touch on various significant aspects of Frida Kahlo’s life, tracing a loose chronology of the artist’s personal and professional development. The show will begin with Kahlo’s early years and her relationship with her father.

The exhibition is curated by Claire Wilcox, who has already worked closely with the V&A on a number of big shows, including 2011’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, Radical Fashion and the Vivienne Westwood exhibition in 2004.

V&A’s Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up draws inspiration from an earlier exhibition, Appearances Can Be Deceiving: The Dresses of Frida Kahlo, which displayed the artist’s clothes alongside her prosthetics at the Blue House in Mexico.

“We gave it a different title, Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, but the themes of both shows are about the way Frida constructed her identity,” Claire Wilcox told Dazed. She continues: “We have been able to bring a larger group of her clothing, jewellery, prosthetics, and medical gear alongside self-portraits and photographs. We are constructing the picture of Frida’s life – the way she constructed her identity through the actual objects.”