Philippines shoe maven to launch jewelry line

Published 9:00 pm Monday, November 6, 2006

MANILA, Philippines – Imelda Marcos, notorious for her extensive shoe collection and eye-popping jewels accrued under her husband’s dictatorship, is launching a jewelry collection using castoffs from her wardrobe and, she claims, flea market finds.

Marcos, known for her shopping trips to ritzy shops in New York while the country wallowed in poverty, says she made the pieces from her old accessories and clothes, mixed with newly bought stones and other materials.

Her daughter, Rep. Imee Marcos, said that unknown to many people, her mother shops for trinkets and accessories at flea markets, and keeps earrings with a missing mate or brooches that have some missing stones.

Using a glue gun, scissors or pliers, her mother “can combine them with her vintage items in a way that comes out beautiful,” Imee Marcos told journalists Monday during a promotional photo shoot for “The Imelda Collection,” which is to be launched Nov. 18 in Manila.

The 77-year-old widow of Ferdinand Marcos reclined on a divan in the seaside garden of a Manila hotel to pose for photos Monday, modeling several chunky necklaces, rings and bracelet sets for a brochure about the collection.

She said the jewelry collection was the idea of her grandson, Martin “Borgy” Manotoc, who told her, “You are creating beautiful things, like jewels from practically garbage.”

The first designs are only for jewelry and will “not yet” include shoes, her daughter said. But an aide said there are plans to expand the collection to include shoes, clothes and possibly furniture.

Marcos said the items would be inexpensive, costing from $20 to $100. But her daughter said prices and details about the collection still are being ironed out.

The jewelry collection is a far cry from the dozens of suitcases of genuine diamond tiaras, ruby brooches, emerald necklaces and other jewels the government confiscated from Marcos and plans to auction off.

The government has recovered about $1.6 billion in cash and assets from the Marcoses and their associates, including Swiss bank deposits now worth about $680 million.