In the same way Marilyn Monroe had her red lipstick and Jackie Kennedy Onassis had her oversized Nina Ricci sunglasses, Frida Kahlo's full, dark monobrow became synonymous with the iconic artist's image.
And yet — unless you count every time her brows have been used as a frame of reference for anyone with a unified line of hair above their eyes — there's not much info out there about her specific grooming habits. Perhaps this is because Kahlo's belongings have been tucked away in Mexico City for half a century, but according to The Guardian, that's all changing when the Victoria & Albert Museum opens its show on the late artist and activist in London this summer. In it, visitors will get to see more than 200 of her personal items, including her jewellery, clothing, prosthetic leg, and the exact pencil she used to fill in her famous unibrow.
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Like many famous women from that time, Kahlo favoured Revlon makeup — the brand of which her gently-used blush, lipstick (in her favourite shade, "Everything's Rosy"), nail file, and, yes, ebony eyebrow pencil will be on full display in its original packaging. (None of the products are still around today, but the closest match to the latter, a brand rep tells us, would be Revlon's Soft Black Colorstay Pencil.
But the pencil holds more than just cosmetic significance — it's what Kahlo used to break the mould and express the woman she wanted to be. As Claire Wilcox, the exhibition's co-curator, told the publication, "This is the real material evidence of the way Kahlo constructed her identity." And, in the landmark year of women's empowerment, that's something worth celebrating.
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