The Asian textile giant Shein has launched this Thursday a collection inspired by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The company with which she has collaborated has been the Frida Kahlo Corporation, a Panamanian company that controls 51% of the brand and with which the artist’s family has been in dispute for almost 10 years over possession of the rights.

In 2004, the only heir to the painter, Isolda Pinedo, transferred the brand to the Frida Kahlo Corporation. There were no problems between them until Pinedo’s descendants, Mara Romeo and Mara de Anda, considered that the agreement they had signed was being “systematically breached.” Since then, they have tried to regain control over the firm, of which Romeo, the artist’s great-niece, has a 49% stake. Last July, the family asked the Puma brand to remove a clothing collection inspired by the figure of Frida Kahlo from the market. In a letter, the legal team representing Romeo gave the German firm seven days to “definitely withdraw from the promotion” of the garments.Ç

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It is not the only controversy in which relatives have been involved. In 2018, they asked the company Mattel to stop the marketing of a Frida Kahlo-inspired Barbie doll. The slender figure with braids, dressed in a black shirt, blue skirt and red shawl was criticized during an interview by Mara de Anda, the painter’s great-grandniece, who claimed that the artist “was not a Barbie”, but “a woman with flaws”. ”. The sale of the doll stopped in Mexico, although, with a limited edition, it sold out in the rest of the world.

Shein has shared a publication on social networks in which she defends that Kahlo is “an icon that represents female empowerment.” “Her passion, her artistic work, and the vivid colors have inspired us to create the ‘Shein X Frida Kahlo’ collection in her honor,” writes the Asian company alongside an image of a model wearing one of the designs.

On her website, Shein notes that the artist embodies “strength and perseverance, female empowerment and authenticity.” The collaboration between the brand and Frida Kahlo Corporation has more than 80 designs available.