Mara Hoffman Spring 2012
The Cult of Kahlo is growing everyday. In life, Frida was known simply as Mrs. Rivera, but now it’s Diego who lives in her shadow. She has become a pop culture phenomenon.
Frida’s artwork first gained recognition in North America in the 1970′s. The Women’s Movement championed Frida as a feminist icon who’d suffered at the hands of her sexist husband. Women resonated with the emotional and physical pain depicted in her paintings. While feminists misunderstood her life, (Frida loved being a wife, longed to be a mother, had several affairs herself, etc.) women adopted her as a saint-like figure.
Frida continued to gain popularity in the 1980′s when Madonna began collecting her paintings. The cost of an original Kahlo rose from several thousand dollars to over $1 million.
When the movie “Frida” debuted in 2002, Frida Kahlo became a household name, often in reference to Salma Hayek’s unibrow. The movie, with its script based on Hayden Herrera’s book, was nominated for two Academy Awards, making Frida Kahlo famous and ensuring her place in pop culture.
In the past two months, Frida was sited as an inspiration for the Florence and the Machine song “What the Water Gave Me” (also the name of a Kahlo painting) and Mara Hoffman became the latest of several fashion designers to reference her iconic style. Hoffman’s Spring 2012 collection is definitely Mexico-inspired and the hair and makeup on the runway models is unmistakably Kahlo.
It makes me so happy to know that people are as inspired by her as I am. I love that her spirit and her iconic beauty are still alive in people’s minds.
