Frida Kahlo: Fashion Victor at the V&A

A low hairline betraying ethnic heritage that necessitated electrolysis, skin lightening that changed olive skin to porcelain, and dark hair dyed to red transformed Carmen Cansino into screen siren Rita Hayworth. At the same time, Frida Kahlo defiantly wore her unibrow like a badge of bravery and plaited her tresses in traditional braids. She would have scorned a stylist and, in fact, actually commented about her time in New York that “I dislike the ‘high society’… and feel a little rage against all these fat cats.” Returning to Mexico, she worked on her painting, "My Dress Hangs There," not restrained by clothing, but empowered by it. Though childhood polio withered her right leg and a bus accident in her twenties necessitated back braces and surgical corsets, she did not recede in basic black, but reveled in color and pattern. No wonder lines still wrap around the block as fans queue up for retrospectives of her work. On June 16, 2018, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum opens an exhibit of clothing, jewelry and accessories which had been shuttered away in the Blue House where Kahlo lived and loved. Co-curators Circe Fenestra and Claire Wilcox open the door