A Great Obsession

In a museum in Manila the accessories of the former first lady

, Imelda Marcos, are displayed in all their splendour. She owned around 3000 pairs of shoes. She was born in 1930 and after winning a beauty contest she married the president of the Philippines. Their life together was one of great extravagance and corruption. Together they embezzled millions and millions of money from this poor country.

Later on in life they were exiled in Hawaii, where her husband died. Imelda was tried several times for embezzlement, first in the States where she was acquitted and then on her return to her own country by the judiciaries there. She was convicted, but did not go to jail long.

Despite of the great disservice this couple did to their country, Imelda helped in her own way to revive the shoe industry in her locality. She was not very good at organising the infrastructure for commerce, but her obsession with womens shoes helped the local industry on its way. It was Imelda who set up this museum, even though most of the exhibits are her own.

The reason for this is that the local shoe industry was conceived in a part of the Philippines and she would always patronise the local products, thus helping to keep the manufacturing process going. This factory became famous locally and all over the world until cheap imports from other developing countries flooded the market. However the imports were not as durable as the local well-constructed footwear.

Imelda's shoe collection in the museum, although not exclusively locally manufactured, is still a great advertisement these days for the local shoe manufacturers. The snake skin shoes produced there are on sale all over the world in the most exclusive shops.

After a few years of set-backs amongst which was a big storm in which the museum and many manufacturers were flooded, the museum has now been rebuilt and a permanent shoe fair has been established. With the influx of cheap imports, the shoe industry locally has now recovered somewhat as the wages in China and other cheap labour wages have increased. Combined with the superior standard of their product the industry should recover some of the sales lost since the late nineties. Some 200,000 people still work in the industry today.

Not many people have an obsession as large as Imelda Marcos had with her feet. She is reported not having been able to wear all the shoes in her collection; it is simply too vast. If you have a shoe fetish, perhaps the easiest way to obtain many pairs is to go on line. There are many sites out there which will sell any shoe manufactured. There are web pages which sell top of the range examples and others which will cater for any pocket.

Shopping on line will take the legwork out of having to visit all the shops in your local high street. Payment is easy and done by credit card and the shoes will arrive in a matter of days. Postage is often free.

by: John Samual

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