Paris — A new exhibition in Paris will juxtapose Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s paintings alongside personal items ranging from traditional Tehuana dresses to orthopedic corsets to bright pink Revlon lipstick .

“Frida Kahlo, Beyond Appearances” debuted in Mexico City in 2012 as Casa Azul, birthplace of Kahlo, and after stops in London and New York City, on Thursday at the Palais Galliera, a fashion museum supported by the City Hall of Paris. Open. and San Francisco in various iterations.

Running through March 5, the show showcases more than 200 objects from the Frida Kahlo Museum. This includes clothing, accessories, letters, cosmetics, medicines and orthopedic aids. That includes her prosthetic legs with red leather boots that she started wearing after she sat down. Amputated her right leg a year before she died.

“This exhibition will discuss the identities she has constructed through disability, ethnicity, gender identity and political views,” said the exhibition’s curator and designer, a fashion scholar at LaSalle College of the Arts in Singapore. Director Circe Henestrosa said:

After Kahlo’s death in 1954, many of the objects were sealed and only saw the light of day half a century later. Miraculously, many of her clothes survived unscathed and are exhibited alongside the photographs in which they appear, including a famous series of color portraits by Nicholas Murray.

“I was looking at her wardrobe and looking at photographs and paintings to get an idea of ​​how she works with her style and materials,” Genestrosa said. liked.

“I quickly saw how all these materials relate and speak to each other. There is no hierarchy in curatorial decisions, so dresses are as important as paintings, and paintings are as important as photographs. It’s important, and photography is just as important as orthopedic equipment,” she continued.

The exhibition in the museum’s underground galleries begins with a large documentary section that traces Kahlo’s formative years. This includes traumatic events that shape Kahlo as an artist. Eighteen survived a horrific tram accident that caused multiple injuries requiring lifelong medical attention.

But just as important was the influence of her parents. From her mother Matilde Calderón y Gonzalez, of Spanish and indigenous descent, she draws her connection to the traditional clothing of Mexico, and her German-born father Guillermo Kahlo gave her an image. taught the power of

“Her first form of self-expression was posing for her father, who was a photographer. said Ganith Ancoli, professor of art history and theory. She acted as a content advisor for the exhibition. “She then has a serious, intense look, which can be seen later in her self-portrait.”

After the accident, Kahlo, who was studying medicine at the time, began painting. One of her paintings from that era shows the scene of the crash in vivid detail, with Kahlo sprawled out in the rubble and hovering over observing the event.

“What she shows here is another Frida from the outside, the second self. It is like the psychological phenomenon of splitting or separation. It’s like cutting your head off,” he said. Ancoli.

“It’s a recurring motif throughout her life where she exhibits two Fridas, or double selves,” she noted.

Photographs taken the following year show Kahlo alternating between a three-piece men’s suit and a black, knee-length satin dress. “You can see that she chooses the way she expresses herself. It emphasizes that,” Ancoli said.

After marrying Mexican muralist Diego Rivera in 1929, Kahlo developed into her persona. She adopted traditional dress to express her identity as Mexican, but also as a way of dealing with her disability more comfortably.

“The geometry of the composition of the Tehuana dress allows her to edit herself as all the decorations are concentrated on the torso,” says Henestrosa. “She hides her own body under that beautiful fabric, but then she reveals it openly through her art.”

When Kahlo and Rivera arrived in the United States in 1930, she captivated photographers such as Peter Julie and Imogen Cunningham with her style. “Her attitude towards her was rather patronizing, but she was also charming,” Ancoli said. Film footage from the time shows Rivera getting off her scaffolding while doing her job, as she works on her painting.

A section created for the Paris exhibition focuses on her trip to the French capital in 1939 when she took part in a group exhibition called “Mexique” organized by the surrealist poet André Breton. Letters and photos show that Kahlo developed a close friendship while in France, even though she was going through a crisis in her marriage to Rivera.

This part includes never-before-seen items such as her passport, address book, and tickets for the Normandy Cruise Liner. But the highlight of the exhibition is the display of Kahlo’s personal items, including a necklace she made from pre-Columbian jade beads. A bottle of Chanel No. 5 lotion and some of Revlon’s makeup items, including a tube of Everything’s Rosy lipstick.

“When I went through her personal belongings, I met her for the first time and found her incredibly sophisticated,” said Henestrosa.

One wall is adorned with Kahlo’s collection of orthopedic corsets, some of which she hand-embellished. In a photo by Florence Arkin, she proudly lifts her Huipil blouse to show off her plaster body with a hammer and sickle painted on her chest and a fetus painted in her womb.

“For me, it is very important to emphasize that it was through creativity that she dealt with disability, that she did not allow herself to be defined by these obstacles, but that she She defined herself in words.

On the ground floor of the museum, a capsule exhibition running from Thursday to December 31st will feature Rei Kawakubo and Jean Paul Gaultier for Comme des Garçons, Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy, Maria Grazia Chiuri for Dior and Karl Lagerfeld as a contemporary designer. Examine your impact. Chanel.

The French fashion house, which exclusively supports the exhibition, said Kahlo inspired Lagerfeld’s spring 1993 ready-to-wear campaign and a March 2010 editorial for German Vogue, both featuring Claudia Schiffer. said. A slide show of images at the entrance to the exhibit is sure to stir up controversy.

“It’s an interpretation. It’s going to be controversial for some people because she’s a white model and it’s kind of an appropriation.” is.”

Known for her wicked sense of humor, Kahlo might have been amused by the idea of ​​a towering German model made in her image simply because it shows the staying power of the mythology she created. I can’t.