Frida Kahlo: jewellery a la mexicana

In a biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera, fellow artist Lucienne Bloch describes jewellery shopping with Frida as going through markets and thrift stores 'like a tornado...she'd find cheap costume jewellery and she'd make it look fantastic'. This is because Frida Kahlo had a powerful vision of her self in mind.

From Frida: Making Her Self Up,
Victoria and Albert exhibition catalogue

More than costume jewellery, Frida collected gold ornaments and stone beads that dated back to Mexico's pre-Columbian period. Many of her distinctive jade beads may have come from Maya sites excavated in southeastern Mexico, and art historians believe that Frida assembled these beads into necklaces herself, including this one with a fist-shaped pendant.

From Frida: Making Her Self Up,
Victoria and Albert exhibition catalogue

Frida's taste in jewellery ranged from the pre-colonial to the progressive, modern pieces being created by Mexican designer-craftspeople of her own time. She owned a Chinese cloisonné bracelet made of overlapping pieces brought to Mexico by the Manila galleon trade, as well as a coral necklace threaded with metal milagros, or votive charms, shaped like legs.

From Frida: Making Her Self Up,
Victoria and Albert exhibition catalogue

Frida proudly wore her jewellery as a sign of her identity as La Mexicana. Even though the beads and metal pieces were heavy and clanked 'like a knight in armour' as one of her friends describes, she wore them in multitudes and layers, and painted herself wearing them.

From Frida: Making Her Self Up,
Victoria and Albert exhibition catalogue

Other artist friends made her customised jewellery to suit her bold personality. Marguerite Poulat designed a magnificent neckpiece with artistic influences from all over the world: Chinese Daoist symbols, Mayan interlocking chains, and Mexican birds and conch shells.

From Frida: Making Her Self Up,
Victoria and Albert exhibition catalogue

Antonio Pineda made her a striking bracelet of silver and amethyst that a modern trendsetter would kill to wear today.

From Frida: Making Her Self Up,
Victoria and Albert exhibition catalogue

Parker Lesley, New York curator and one of the original Monuments Men, described Frida as possessing 'the Byzantine opulence of the Empress Theodora, a combination of barbarism and elegance' - a description the wonder | wander | women find very aspirational!

From Frida: Making Her Self Up,
Victoria and Albert exhibition catalogue

Her regal self-possession and her love of textures and sensual details make her an eternal icon for us, an inspiration that never fails to draw us over and over.

From Frida: Making Her Self Up,
Victoria and Albert exhibition catalogue