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MANILA - Imelda Marcos, the Philippines' former first lady famed for her rapacious extravagance, plans to launch a line of cheap accessories and sports shoes aimed at the youth market this month.
The widow of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, renowned for amassing 1,500 pairs of shoes and a vast collection of jewels during her husband's 20 year regime, told reporters on Monday her trinkets and sneakers would be affordable to the masses.
"This is more than about money because money can only buy you food and things like that, but only beauty can feed your soul and your spirit," said Marcos, wearing a chunky blue brooch and matching earrings.
The Imelda Collection, a range of low-cost but glitzy jewelry, bags and trainers, is aimed at a generation not yet born when the former beauty queen swept through Manila's corridors of power in sequined stilettos and diamond tiaras.
"I think the younger generation are much more open to my mother because the older generation has prejudged her," Imee Marcos, a Congresswoman and the eldest of the Marcos children, said.
Reporters were not shown the accessories, which Imee said would include pieces from her mother's own collection as well as designs created by Imee and her son, underwear model Fernando Manotoc.
Ferdinand Marcos and his family have been accused of looting up to $10 billion from the impoverished Southeast Asian country in bank deposits, shares, jewelry, art and property before he was ousted by an army-backed popular revolt in 1986.
Decades before hip hop artists came up with the term "bling bling" to describe gaudy ostentation, Filipinos used the phrase "Imeldific" to describe acts of excess.
Imelda returned to the Philippines in 1991 from exile in Hawaii, where her husband had died in 1989. Once feared, she is now seen by many as an eccentric figure of fun and has run for president and won a term in Congress.
A Manila court found her innocent of one set of corruption charges last month but she still faces 10 more graft cases and dozens of civil suits over billions of dollars in unexplained wealth amassed during her husband's rule.
She still faces hundreds of cases accusing her of illegally transferring millions of US dollars overseas.
- REUTERS
