Iconic Frida Kahlo collection goes on show at V & A

It promises to be an illuminating collection of personal artefacts, from her brightly coloured rebozo shawls to her signature dangly earrings plus a selection of books, portraits and photographs, epitomising her unique and powerful style against a backdrop of a troubled life.

Her jewellery collection comprises a range of pieces handcrafted by native Central American Indians before Christopher Columbus discovered America using roughly cut stone beads and other materals true to the Zapotec and Mayan traditions.

While not fashionable at the time, their chunky style, as depicted in her self portraits and old photos, has been responsible for inspiring scores of collections ever since, designers working directly from those portraits. 

But only now are we able to see the real pieces for ourselves. For 50 years after her death, they were kept from prying eyes by her husband Diego Rivera at their house 'Casa Azul'  in Mexico City. 

Kahlo died in 1954, at the age of 47, after a lifetime of struggle and pain but brilliant creativity, which was only recognised some years after her death. At the age of six, she had contracted polio then while still a teenager, was impaled by an iron handrail in an accident which put an end to her dreams of being a doctor.

The exhibition tells of those struggles and along with the jewellery, there are a selection of Frida's tunics and dresses, many of which were sewn wide so she could wear them in her wheelchair. There are also colourful floor-length skirts, some of them still bearing traces of the paint she used while painting.

As the co-curators Claire Wilcox and Circe Henestrosa said: "Her wardrobe was not staged but a second skin”. 

"Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up," runs from Saturday until November 4 at the Victoria and Albert Museum