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Frida Kahlo's Embroidered Clothes Restored to Family Home

The clothes worn by Frida Kahlo have been restored and put on display at the Kahlo former family home, now turned into a museum. Curators found a trunk in the back of wardrobe in a bathroom that contains around 300 embroidered shirts and skirts, many of which were still scented with the artist’s perfume and the smell of cigarette smoke. The trunk of clothes was found in 2004 during a renovation of her family's home. She had died in 1954 after a life of nearly constant pain and numerous surgeries for the broken bones she suffered in a bus accident. Inside the trunk were dresses, embroidered shirts, tablecloths and a letter from Rivera, her husband.

The display has been added just in time for the 100th anniversary of her birth. It has taken the curators two years to record and restore all the items of clothing. Frida Kahlo was the wife of the muralist Diego Rivera and she had experienced a horrific bus crash and polio as a child. She was well known for her paintings. Her life has inspired several films. Rosen Zweig, who helped restore the many items of clothing, hopes that the new exhibit will spark interest in native Mexican textiles and clothing. Some of the painter's skirts were stained by oil paints, and one had a small, scorched hole from a cigarette. Her body was crippled by disease and the bus accident featured as the main topic of many of her paintings, which were self-portraits that showed her pain and inability to have children. Her clothing was a way to hide or even address her physical disabilities. When she broke her back she needed to wear a hard, plaster corset that she decorated by painting intricate designs onto it. During her months of bed rest "it was a ritual to get dressed," Rosen Zweig said.