Title
Uninhabited Dresses: Frida Kahlo, from Icon of Mexico to Fashion Muse
Publication Date
2014
Document Type
Article
Abstract
This article examines the shifting meanings of Frida Kahlo’s figure and the Tehuana ethnic dress known as her trademark look. It analyzes Appearances Can Deceiving: The Dresses of Frida Kahlo, the first exhibit of the artist’s recently recovered wardrobe on view at the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City from 2012‐14. Engaging the exhibit’s suggestion that the artist casts a “spectral” image over contemporary fashion, this article inquires about the ways history inscribes itself on fashion despite its pretensions of constant innovation. The exhibit is examined in dialogue with Frida Kahlo’s My Dress Hangs There (1933), an image that reflects on modernity and national identity through the tension between competing visions of femininity and fashion represented by Mae West and a disembodied Tehuana dress.
Original Citation
Aragon, A.F. (2014). Uninhabited Dresses: Frida Kahlo, from Icon of Mexico to Fashion Muse. Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture, 18(5), 517-550. https://doi.org/10.2752/175174114X14042383562065
Virtual Commons Citation
Aragon, Alba F. (2014). Uninhabited Dresses: Frida Kahlo, from Icon of Mexico to Fashion Muse. In Global Languages and Literature Faculty Publications. Paper 20.
Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/languages_fac/20