Analysis: Frida Kahlo – Making Her Self Up (UPDATED)

Introduction to Frida Kahlo Making Her Self Up & the Art of Self-Invention

Frida Kahlo stands as one of the most recognisable and influential figures of twentieth-century art, not only for her paintings but for the way she crafts her own image. She does not simply paint self-portraits; she invents, performs, and asserts her identity through every aspect of her appearance. Her life is a continual act of making herself up—through costume, pain, politics, and art. This is not mere vanity or eccentricity, but a deliberate, layered act of self-creation that endures as her legacy.

Childhood, Trauma, and the Birth of the Self

Early Adversity and the Mirror’s Gaze

Frida contracts polio at the age of six, leaving her with a weakened leg and a pronounced limp. Her childhood is marked by physical hardship and the stigma of disability. At 18, she survives a devastating bus accident, suffering internal injuries, a fractured spine, and a shattered leg. These traumas shape her body and her psyche, and they become the foundation of her art and her self-presentation.

Confined to bed for months, Frida’s mother installs a mirror above her so she can see herself. This mirror becomes both a companion and a canvas. Isolated, she begins to paint her own image, stating, “I’ll paint myself because I am so often alone.” The act of looking at herself—of studying, scrutinising, and reimagining her reflection—becomes a lifelong practice. The mirror is not merely a tool; it is a portal through which she invents herself anew, again and again.

Photography and the Early Lessons of Self-Image

Frida’s father, Guillermo Kahlo, is a photographer. He teaches her the craft: retouching, preparing glass plates, and taking self-portraits. These early lessons in image-making are formative. She learns to control how she is seen, to manipulate light and shadow, to present herself with intention. The camera’s lens and the painter’s brush become twin instruments in her lifelong project of self-fashioning.

Disability, Pain, and the Armour of Costume

Plaster Corsets and Prosthetic Legs: Transforming Suffering

Frida’s life is defined by pain. She endures more than thirty operations, countless hospitalisations, and the daily agony of a body that will not heal. Yet she refuses to be defined by her suffering. Instead, she transforms her medical supports—plaster corsets, orthopaedic boots, prosthetic limbs—into works of art. She paints her corsets, adorning them with symbols, colours, and political emblems. Her prosthetic leg is fitted with a red embroidered boot, bells, and dragon motifs. These objects, intended to conceal or correct, become declarations of identity and creativity.

Her corsets are not hidden away in shame; they are displayed, celebrated, and even worn as costumes. Through this act, Frida reclaims her body, asserting agency over her pain. The medical becomes the aesthetic; the necessary becomes the beautiful.

The Stigma of Disability and the Power of Self-Presentation

In Mexican society, disability is often stigmatised, seen as a weakness or a source of shame. Frida confronts this head-on. She does not hide her scars or her supports. Instead, she incorporates them into her art and her public image. Even as she faces overprotection from her family and delayed medical interventions, she insists on independence and self-sufficiency. Her costumes—layered, vibrant, and meticulously chosen—serve as both camouflage and proclamation. They distract from her injuries while simultaneously drawing attention to her resilience.

The Politics of Dress: Tradition, Identity, and Defiance

Tehuana Dress and the Performance of Mexicanidad

Frida’s most iconic look is the Tehuana costume: a long skirt (enagua), loose blouse (huipil), and elaborate headpiece. This traditional dress originates from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a matriarchal society in southern Mexico. By adopting this style, Frida aligns herself with powerful women and asserts a distinctly Mexican identity.

She does not simply wear these clothes; she performs them. In 1930s San Francisco, she causes a sensation, stopping traffic and attracting stares. Children ask if she is part of a circus. Her style is seen as exaggerated, even theatrical, by her contemporaries. Yet for Frida, the Tehuana costume is both shield and statement—a way to conceal her damaged leg, to assert her heritage, and to challenge Eurocentric standards of beauty.

Heritage, Hybridity, and the Construction of Self

Frida is of mixed heritage: her mother is Mexican, her father German. She grows up surrounded by a blend of European and Mexican influences. Her mother’s wardrobe mixes styles from both worlds, and Frida embraces this hybridity. She borrows, adapts, and reinvents, creating a visual language that is uniquely her own.

Her adoption of Tehuana dress is not simply a matter of personal taste. It is a carefully considered act, rooted in her maternal lineage and her political beliefs. She is drawn to the high status and independence of Tehuana women, and she uses their costume to project strength and autonomy.

Fashion as Political Statement

Frida’s wardrobe is inseparable from her politics. She is a committed communist, and her clothing choices reflect her solidarity with the working class and indigenous peoples. She wears rebozos—shawls with revolutionary history—and incorporates pre-Columbian jewellery into her ensembles. Her corsets and dresses are adorned with symbols of her political allegiance.

At times, she experiments with European fashions, particularly during her travels in the United States. Yet even then, she subverts expectations, blending Mexican and Western elements to create a style that is both cosmopolitan and defiantly local. Her clothing becomes a battleground, a site where issues of class, race, gender, and power are negotiated and displayed.

Art and Identity: The Self as Canvas

Self-Portraiture: Painting the Inner and Outer Self

Frida’s paintings are almost exclusively self-portraits. She paints herself with unflinching honesty, depicting her injuries, her emotions, her dualities. In “The Two Fridas,” she presents herself in two guises: one in European dress, the other in Tehuana costume. The painting explores themes of identity, belonging, and fragmentation. The two figures are joined by a bloodline, connected yet distinct.

Her self-portraits are not mere likenesses; they are acts of self-creation. She uses costume, setting, and symbolism to construct and deconstruct her identity. She paints herself as a martyr, a goddess, a revolutionary, a lover, and a sufferer. Each image is a new iteration, a fresh act of making herself up.

The Influence of Casta Paintings and Catholic Iconography

Frida draws inspiration from colonial Mexican casta paintings, which depict mixed-race families in hierarchical arrangements. In her work “My Grandparents, My Parents and Me,” she reimagines her family as a bloodline stretching across oceans and deserts. She borrows the visual language of Catholicism—resplandor headpieces, devotional poses—even as she rejects its beliefs. In life and in art, she wears these symbols with irony and drama, using them to question and redefine her place in the world.

The Exhibition: Frida Kahlo’s Wardrobe Unveiled

Objects of Suffering and Spirit

The exhibition “Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up” displays an extraordinary array of personal artefacts: plaster corsets, prosthetic legs, embroidered boots, and traditional costumes. These objects bear witness to her suffering and her indomitable spirit. They are not relics of a tragic life, but testaments to resilience, creativity, and self-invention.

Her painted corsets, in particular, stand out as symbols of transformation. One features the communist logo and a circular cut-out at the stomach, highlighting her inability to bear children and her political convictions. These items are both deeply personal and profoundly public, blurring the line between art and life.

The Power and Controversy of Display

Some may view the exhibition of such intimate objects as invasive. Yet Frida herself is unflinching in her willingness to expose her vulnerabilities. Through her art and her dress, she invites the world to witness her pain and her defiance. She is both subject and object, artist and artwork.

Frida as Fashion Icon: Influence and Appropriation

Legacy in Fashion and Popular Culture

Frida’s style has inspired countless designers and artists. Jean Paul Gaultier‘s 1998 collection reimagines her look, blending European, Latin American, and indigenous elements. The fashion world seizes upon her image, often reducing it to “primitiveness” or “exoticism.” Yet Frida’s own approach is far more complex—a conscious negotiation of tradition, modernity, and self-expression.

Her influence extends beyond clothing. She becomes a symbol of feminist strength, artistic autonomy, and cultural pride. Friends and contemporaries, such as Rosa Rolanda, adopt traditional Mexican dress in homage. Kahlo’s image is endlessly reproduced, commodified, and celebrated, yet the original act remains radical: the making up of the self as a form of resistance and affirmation.

Dualities and Contradictions: The Many Fridas

Gender, Sexuality, and Androgyny

Frida delights in contradiction. She dresses as a boy in family photographs, challenging gender norms and expectations. She embraces both masculine and feminine traits, refusing to be confined by binary definitions. Her self-portraits explore these dualities, presenting her as both vulnerable and powerful, wounded and triumphant.

Cultural Hybridity and the Performance of Identity

Frida’s identity is never fixed. She is Mexican and European, indigenous and cosmopolitan, Catholic and atheist, traditionalist and revolutionary. She borrows and blends, invents and reinvents. Her costumes are not simply clothes; they are performances, statements, and shields. Through them, she navigates the complexities of her heritage, her politics, and her personal history.

The Final Act: Death and the Self-Made Image

Dressing for the End

Even in death, Frida controls her image. She is dressed in a white huipil, her hair braided, her fingers adorned with rings. The final photograph echoes her self-portraits, presenting her as she wishes to be remembered: dignified, dramatic, and unmistakably herself. This deliberate styling is a final act of self-invention, a last assertion of agency over her body and her legacy.

Afterlife and Iconography

Frida’s image endures, endlessly reproduced and reinterpreted. She becomes a global icon, embraced for her individuality, her defiance, and her artistry. Her self-made image—painfully constructed, fiercely defended—remains a source of fascination and inspiration. The boundaries between art and life, self and other, are forever blurred in her work and her legend.

Conclusion: The Enduring Power of Making Her Self Up

Frida Kahlo’s life and art are inseparable. She does not simply depict herself; she invents herself, over and over, through costume, painting, and performance. Her self-fashioning is both shield and weapon, a means of survival and a declaration of independence. In a world that seeks to define, categorise, and constrain, Frida insists on the right to make herself up—on her own terms, in her own image.

Her legacy is not just in her paintings, but in the example she sets: to turn pain into beauty, to transform constraint into creativity, and to claim the power of self-invention. Frida Kahlo remains, above all, the artist of her own life—a master of making her self up.

Bibliography

A-I Sources

• André, Maria. (2005) Evita and Frida: Latin American icons for export. In: R. A. Root, ed. The Latin American Fashion Reader. New York: Berg Fashion Library, pp. 247-262.
• Collins, A. F., 2013. Diary of A Mad Artist [Online] Available at: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/1995/09/frida-kahlo-diego-rivera-art-diary [Accessed 19/11/18]
• Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up (2018) [Exhibition]. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 16 June-18 November 2018. [Visited 1/10/18].
• FridaKahlo.org, 2011. My Grandparents, My Parents and Me, 1936 by Frida Kahlo. [Online] [Accessed 3/12/2018].
• Gotthardt, A. (2016). A Brief History of the Mexican Votive Paintings That Inspired Frida Kahlo. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-the-traditional-mexican-votive-paintings-that-inspired-frida-kahlo [Accessed 18/10/18].
• Henestrosa, C. (2018). Appearances Can Be Deceiving – Frida Kahlo’s Construction of Identity: Disability, Ethnicity and Dress. In: Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up. London: V&A, p.73, 78, 81, Claire Wilcox and Circe Henestrosa.
• Hope College, 2012. Rosa Rolanda – Biography and Influence and Analysis. Surrealist Women Artists [Online], Available at https://faculty.hope.edu/andre/artistPages/rolanda_bio.html [Accessed 18/10/2018].

J-Z Sources

• Jansen, C. (2018). The Stories behind 7 Objects That Made Up Frida Kahlo’s Iconic Look. [Online] https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-stories-7-objects-made-frida-kahlos-iconic [Accessed 16/10/18].
• Komar, M., 2018. How Frida Kahlo’s fashions brought Mexican politics to the world stage. [Online] Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/frida-kahlo-mexican-fashion/index.html  [Accessed 26/11/18].
• Levine, B. & Jaycox, S., n.d. Finding Frida Kahlo. Bilingual ed. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. p 81.
• Mirkin, D. (2008) ‘To Paint the Unspeakable: Mexican Female Artists’ Iconography of the 1930s and Early 1940s’ In: JSTOR.org Spring/Summer 2008 [online], [Accessed 19/11/18].
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• Smart, J. F. S. &. D. W., 1991. Acceptance of Disability and the Mexican American culture. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, p81. 34(4).

Figures

• https://www.fridakahlo.org/the-two-fridas.jsp
• Figure 1: Image of Kahlo’s prosthetic leg with red leather embroidered boots https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/frida-kahlo-making-her-self-up#objects
• Figure 2: Image of plaster corsets on display at Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up https://www.frameweb.com/news/the-v-a-unpacks-frida-kahlos-lifelong-home-to-curate-an-icon
• Figure 3: Family photograph of Kahlo and her family
• Figure 4: Image of Kahlo by photographer Nickolas Murray in New York City,1939
• Figure 5: Jean Paul Gaultier 1998 Ready-to-wear collection, inspired by Frida Kahlo
• Figure 6: Self portrait of Borderline between Mexico and USA’ by Frida Kahlo, 1932
• Figure 7: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo at a New York dinner, 1933
• Figure 8: Vogue article: Señoras of Mexico featuring friend of Kahlo’s, Rosa Rolanda in Tehuana dress, 1937
• Figure 9: Tehuanas, painting by Rosa Rolanda (date unknown) http://www.artnet.com/artists/rosa-rolanda/tehuanas-n7I6N4ILaAfsc2UPWnZWLw2
• Figure 10: ‘My Grandparents, My Parents and Me’ Frida Kahlo, 1936
• Figure 11: Self-portrait as a Tehuana, by Frida Kahlo, 1943
• Figure 12: Frida Kahlo wearing traditional Tehuana costume with resplandor headdress, 1940
• Figure 13: Virgin of Guadalupe, Antonio De Torres c. 1720: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Our-Lady-of-Guadalupe-patron-saint-of-Mexico
• Figure 14: Self Portrait dedicated to Leon Trotsky, 1937: https://nmwa.org/works/self-portrait-dedicated-leon-trotsky