Frida Kahlo's "Tehuana" attire: Ethnic dress as feminist self-branding

Mexican painter and feminist icon Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is known to have used fashion to claim personal and political agency in various ways, mainly through her impressive collection of ethnic dresses and jewellery, which she turned into an integral component of her subjectivity. This chapter introduces a new perspective on the crucial relationship between dress and political and personal agency as performed by Kahlo, one which focuses less on nationalism and nation-building, disability or marital relations-the lenses through which this issue is usually discussed-and considers instead brand management: the consumption and adoption of "ethnic" fashion to create a style for self-empowerment in a competitive, and male-dominated, cultural sphere.