Imelda Marcos to launch gems collection

Posted on Mon, Nov. 06, 2006

Imelda Marcos to launch gems collection

TERESA CEROJANO

Associated Press

Imelda Marcos to launch gems collectionImelda 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.
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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 pair 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 of the
collection.


Pointing to a set of matching earrings and brooch made of blue imitation
tiger eye stone she was wearing, she told reporters, "This thing I
wear now is something I recycled."


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.


Describing how the collection came to be, the former first lady recalled,
"One day my grandson came to me and said, `Mama Meldy, I would like
to use your collection to tell the world the real Imelda and the spirit
of my grandma.'"


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


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


"The accessories are just an excuse. It's just a visual and tactile
reminder of this attitude she wishes to share, the Imelda spirit, the
Imelda way and that's what it will represent," Imee Marcos
said.


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 which officials plan to
auction off.


The Marcoses have been accused of amassing ill-gotten wealth and were
driven out of the presidential palace by a military-backed nonviolent
"people power" uprising in 1986. The ousted strongman died in
exile in Hawaii three years later.


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.


Ricardo Abcede, a member of a commission recovering the Marcoses' wealth,
said about $4.4 billion worth of assets are tied up in criminal and civil
cases in the Philippines. The total amount of the Marcoses' assets abroad
is unknown.