PHILIPPINES: Former Filipino first lady Imelda Marcos launches a line of costume jewellery in Manila

After rummaging through her long history as a self-styled icon of beauty, Imelda Marcos launched a line of costume jewellery on Saturday (November 18) recycled from the less expensive bits of her own collection. The former first lady of the Philippines, famous for amassing shoes by the hundreds and gems the size of grapes, has turned old buttons, beads, pearls, shells and embroidery into necklaces, brooches and bracelets with a modern touch. "In the Imelda Collection, it is guaranteed to tarnish and disintegrate, but be 'Imeldific'. Be creative and ingenious and unleash the beautiful in each and everyone of us. That is the message of the Imelda Collection," Mrs Marcos said, referring to the Filipino-coined word "Imeldific" which describes acts of excess that characterised her term as First Lady. "It is both worthless because most of it is coming from garbage and priceless at the same time because it comes from the creativity and ingenuity of every human soul and bring out the God in them. So it is priceless also at the same time. So it is worthless and priceless," she told reporters at a hotel in Manila, adding she was concerned about the threat of nuclear weapons on Mother Earth and the future of today's youth. Mrs Marcos, 77, is rarely far from the spotlight. She and her late husband Ferdinand are accused of looting up to $10 billion from their impoverished Southeast Asian country before his 20-year rule was ended by a popular revolt in 1986. The well-manicured Mrs Marcos, often seen at high-society events in Manila, faces dozens of criminal and civil cases but denies the charges and accuses successive Philippine governments of persecuting her into near poverty. Not everyone is enthusiastic about her new venture. Loretta Ann Rosales, a member of Congress who was arrested and tortured during the Marcos era, says the jewellery is in bad taste. "I think Imelda has lost touch with reality. She doesn't understand what hunger is. She doesn't understand plunder. She doesn't understand the impact of the massacres, the killings, the tortures, the abductions that the regime of her husband has done to the thousands upon thousands of Filipino people," she said. Mrs Marcos has said her line of accessories, which included a few bags and shoes, would be affordable to the masses. But, for now, it is not being sold in stores. The Web site www.imeldacollection.com offers a glimpse and interested buyers must make an appointment. The collection is being produced by her daughter Imee Marcos, a congresswoman, with youthful input from her grandson Martin "Borgy" Manotoc, an underwear model and possible candidate for mayor of Manila in elections next May. The range of trinkets is aimed at Filipinos not yet born when the former beauty queen swept through the corridors of power in designer gowns and diamond tiaras. After her husband died in exile in Hawaii in 1989, Mrs Marcos returned to the Philippines in 1991, running unsuccessfully for president but winning a term in Congress.

ITN Source | November 19, 2006

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