I can distinctly remember the first time I saw an image of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo in my middle-school art class. And while I was entranced by the saturated colors rendered by the celebrated portrait artist, to me she looked more like someone whose wardrobe I’d want to steal more than anything else. Chalk it up to being a middle-school blogger obsessed with anything fashion related, but what I saw in Kahlo’s portraits was a shining style star. As such, Kahlo is the subject of a new book, Frida Kahlo: Fashion as the Art of Being, from Assouline out today, which traces the evolution of personal style with more than 150 stunning photos.
While Coachella girls may think they practically invented the look, no one wears a floral crown better than Kahlo. Along with that, she had an addiction to chic drop earrings coupled with an attraction to large-scale, sculptural jewelry, making her the ultimate accessories icon in my eyes. In her paintings, she frequently wore the rebozo scarf, a traditional Mexican object that she sported either wrapped in her hair or around her shoulders. And she rocked both the single- and mismatched-earring trend long before Céline made it a thing.
Then there’s Kahlo’s famous unibrow. My personal opinion: It just worked for her. She defied all conventional beauty standards and made something most women fear into another statement accessory of sorts.
If there’s anything we can learn from Kahlo’s aesthetic, it’s that risk-taking can definitely pay off. Click through the gallery above to see some of her best looks.
