Imelda Marcos comes into fashion

[Monseratto]

It's the last paragraph that made me ashamed of what the world thinks of the Philippines




The former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, is launching her own fashion label.
The "Imelda Collection", unveiled at a Manila hotel, will begin with a range of jewellery designed by her eldest daughter Maria, better known as Imee.

The brand is expected to include clothing and shoes, with items recycled directly from Mrs Marcos' own outfits.

Her wardrobe became an by-word for extravagance and she was once reputed to own more than 3,000 pairs of shoes.

More than 1,200 of these were found abandoned in the presidential palace when she and her husband, Ferdinand Marcos, fled the country following a popular revolution in 1986.

h

'The Imelda spirit'

Now the 77-year-old former beauty queen has put her name behind a collection which will sell for more modest prices than the fashion items she became notorious for buying while her husband was in power.

Items in the "Imelda Collection" are expected to retail for between $20 and $100.

"What we are selling is not something valuable, but ... it is something invaluable because it's only beauty that can feed the spirit," said Imelda Marcos.

She said the idea for a jewellery collection came from her grandson, Martin "Borgy" Manotoc, who told her: "You are creating beautiful things like jewels from practically garbage."

Imee Marcos said her mother's accessories, discovered at flea markets and transformed into jewellery, were "just a visual and tactile reminder of... the Imelda spirit".

No convictions

Imelda Marcos was found guilty on corruption charges in the mid-1990s and sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.

Former President Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989, and members of his family, including the former first lady, returned to the Philippines in 1991.

Although a large number of corruption charges were filed against the Marcos clan, no family member has ever been finally convicted in the courts.