Top: Frida Kahlo in traditional Tehuana dressBottom: Frida’s mother Matilde (circled) with her Oaxac

Top: Frida Kahlo in traditional Tehuana dressBottom: Frida’s mother Matilde (circled) with her Oaxacan family, in traditional Tehuana dress“Another factor contributing to the worldwide status of the Tehuana traje as the quintessential Mexican dress was the fact that the intricately embroidered huipils and skirts of Tehuana women were adopted by Frida Kahlo as her signature look. Frida resonated and identified easily with the dress for two reasons, firstly her mother Matilde was from Oaxaca and had been photographed as a child wearing the Tehuana dress alongside the rest of her family, and secondly because the traditional dress of the Tehuanas was known nationwide to be the trademark of the most independent and proud indigenous women in all of Mexico. For those reasons Frida painted many portraits of herself wearing the Tehuana traje, including; Self Portrait as a Tehuana 1943, Self Portrait 1948, My Dress Hangs There, Self Portrait with Loose Hair 1947, and Las Dos Fridas 1939, to name a few.” (source)^ Self Portrait as a Tehuana, 1943 by Frida Kahlo^ Self-Portrait 1948^ The Two FridasThis painting was completed shortly after her divorce with Diego Rivera. This portrait shows Frida’s two different personalities. One is the traditional Frida (on the left) in Tehuana costume, with a broken heart, sitting next to an independent, modern dressed Frida (on the right). In Frida’s dairy, she wrote about this painting and said it is originated from her memory of an imaginary childhood friend. Later she admitted it expressed her desperation and loneliness with the separation from Diego. -- source link

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