Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Frida Kahlo's UnderSee Collection: The Bathroom Gallery


The bathroom to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's "Blue House" in Mexico yielded the most extraordinary time capsule when it was unlocked after 50 years. In this bathroom Rivera had tucked away Kahlo's clothes, her makeup, her artificial leg wearing a tall leather boot, with the instructions that the room could be unlocked 15 years after his wife's death. Instead, in a reverse fairy-tale manner, the door was opened after half a century.

After 50 years of residing in a bathroom, in the Blue House, the garments seem to have taken on their own aquatic feel--that's how I see them, anyway. Of course there are obvious references; this sea-green swimsuit to the right, for instance:

But look how the fingers of these gloves float like algae underwater:


And this corset, attached to a skirt, reminds me of a deep-sea diver:































 (This is the cover of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which also engages both fashion and the ocean.)















 Detail of a porthole?













And finally, these stunning cat's eye glasses. Certainly cats are notoriously suspicious of water, but aren't these glasses all the better to sea with?


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