It’s important to play. It came so easily when we were children…we didn’t have to “work up to it” or feel that we “deserved it.” We just played. So that’s what I did this morning. One of my favorite inspiration books is “Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress.” It includes color photos of Frida Kahlo’s personal wardrobe and accessories. So today I pretended that my vintage dressform was Frida and dressed her in some of my favorite things.

Did you know that Diego Rivera stipulated a period of 50 years from the moment of Frida Kahlo’s death until her bathroom/dressing room in Casa Azul could be opened? In April 2004, the director of the Frida Kahlo museum opened Frida’s locked door and began the painstaking job of restoring her wardrobe and personal effects. The project was documented in the aforementioned book published by Chronicle Books in 2007.

What my Frida is wearing today:
I purchased the heavily embroidered huipil on my trip to Oaxaca. The Guatemalan skirt is from a yard sale. I found the embroidered cotton apron at the Alameda flea market and I found the ruffled underskirt at the thrift store last week. The pendant was designed by an artist in San Miguel de Allende and it’s on a heavy silver necklace that I’ve had forever. I designed the headpiece to go with a wedding dress I made last fall.

My ensemble was inspired by this cotton Juchiteco huipil, hand embroidered; satin skirt from the Isthmus with chain-stitch embroidery on top of an underskirt.

Credit: “Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress”; page 76. Photo by Graciela Iturbide