Imelda Marcos, the excessive first lady addicted to luxury: 90 years outwitting justice
The one known as the "iron butterfly" has celebrated a massive birthday in Manila, recently retired from politics and persecuted by the law.
Despite being sentenced to 40 years in prison, Imelda Marcos has turned 90 in full freedom and cheered by her followers. Photo: Getty
“Win or lose, we will go shopping after the election.” This phrase, historically attributed to Imelda Marcos, synthesizes better than any other the 90 years of life of the excessive and controversial former first lady of the Philippines. Together with her former husband, Ferdinand Marcos, she starred in more than two decades of a terrible dictatorship that plunged the country into poverty, also counting thousands of deaths, tortured and imprisoned during the years of martial law. The looting of the country, valued at nearly 10,000 million dollars and which became part of the Guinness Book of Records as the largest theft ever within a Government, was largely invested in fashion and jewelry, the great passions of Imelda. Her influence, extravagance and, of course, the incredible collection of shoes made up of more than 3000 pairs and discovered after her overthrow in the popular revolution of 1986, made Imelda a popular figure throughout the world and whose pop iconicity is still today. discussion meat. Despite the 400 legal proceedings she has faced and the sentence of 40 years in prison that weighs on her, the “iron butterfly” continues to flap… and go shopping.
More than 2,000 people flocked to a park southeast of Manila on July 1 to celebrate the birthday of Imelda Marcos, who since returning from exile in Hawaii in the early 1990s has maintained her popularity among the country's working classes and has held various important political positions. A celebration that came close to ending in tragedy after more than 230 of those attending the event suffered dizziness and vomiting and ended up hospitalized as a result of food poisoning. The anniversary is especially significant because it coincides with her retirement as a congresswoman after nine years in office, a "forced" retirement after a prison sentence that she will hardly serve due to her age. The Marcoses continue to be the most influential political family in the country and have the explicit support of the current president, Rodrigo Duterte. Her eldest daughter, Imee, has just been appointed senator while her younger brother, Bongbong, sounds like a potential candidate for the presidency of the country in 2022, according to the EFE Agency.
Marcos poses with her son and her grandchildren during her anniversary celebration. Photo: Getty
"This nation will be great again," Imelda assured before the devout public present, an audience that seems to have forgiven or, directly, decided to ignore the patrimony plundered by the Marcos family and never returned. While the Filipinos lived in misery, the marriage acquired buildings on Fifth Avenue in New York and in Beverly Hills. In 2014, the country's government seized more than 150 works of art from her private collection, including paintings by painters such as Picasso, Goya, Renoir, Van Gogh, Monet or Miró. Forcing a plane to turn around mid-flight because she had forgotten to buy cheese in Rome or spending $2,000 on chewing gum at the San Francisco airport are other historical episodes that reveal her madness for her waste . But nothing caught her attention and starred in the wishes of the widow like fashion and jewelry.
Described as the "first lady of fashion" and compared to figures such as Marie Antoinette, Marcos conceived one of the most opulent wardrobes that are remembered of her. Her 'shopping days' in capitals like New York or Rome were settled with bills worth several million euros in the main luxury boutiques. A couple of years ago, an invoice from 1978 belonging to a Bulgari store in Manhattan that amounted to one million two hundred thousand euros became viral. One of the most precious treasures in her jewelry box is a Cartier tiara with a 25-carat pink diamond that belonged to Queen Elizabeth of Belgium. Christie's valued the item at more than four million euros and it will be auctioned in the coming months.
President Duterte has authorized the auction of the jewels seized from the widow of Ferdinand Marcos. Photo: Getty
"Beauty is God come true," maintained the former first lady, confirming that her passion for luxury reached religious overtones. Among her famous 3,000 pairs of shoes –which she lists at just over a thousand–, which have become a symbol of the excess of the Marcoses and found by the Filipinos who looted the palace after their overthrow, are models from firms such as Chanel, Dior or Givenchy . Those responsible for the Official Museum of Manila denounced that a large part of the collection has suffered serious deterioration due to the action of termites and meteorological phenomena such as storms. In the presidential palace, 15 mink coats and hundreds of bags and dresses were also found.
Her regimen is also considered by some media as the golden age of Filipino fashion. In addition to her regular purchases at the most renowned haute couture maisons, Marcos had a court of Filipino designers who responded ipso facto to the call of his leader. “Events were invented to have the opportunity to dress up. It was normal that in a week the same designer was asked for two or three dresses, ”says the PH Inquirer magazine. She always attended these social events accompanied by the so-called blue ladies, a Taylor Swift-style squad made up of the wives of rulers and soldiers, as well as the most distinguished of the upper class of Manila. The blue refers to the usual color of the dresses they wore, also characteristic in the electoral campaigns of Ferdinand Marcos.
I grew a lot in pharm school and then I crashed and burned after graduating. How to focus. How to be productive/stu… https://t.co/2j18sUTs9j
— だんごP🏳️🌈 | Dan☾☆⁴ˣ⁴ Sat Jul 24 00:57:56 +0000 2021
Image of the shoe collection of Imelda Marcos, exhibited in a museum in Manila. Photo: Getty
Opulence was one more part of the indisputable charisma and intelligence of the first lady, that she was much more than a consort figure and she came to surpass her own husband in popularity and influence. In addition to her active role in the Philippine government as minister or governor of Greater Manila, Marcos dazzled leaders of the caliber of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, Emperor Hirohito, Mao Zedong, Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro, who came to serve as her guide. private in Havana. “I have only driven for two women in my entire life: my mother and Imelda Marcos,” confessed the Cuban revolutionary.
Imelda Marcos, the former first lady who spent $2,000 on gum. Photo: Getty
Public opinion today debates whether the autocrat can be considered a style icon of the 21st century, ignoring the decades of crimes and misdemeanors committed during her marital dictatorship. Recently, a Philippine magazine published a cover in which a model posed reinterpreting Marcos' "impeccable taste for style" and several Twitter users condemned the process of romanticization and glorification that his figure experiences, not unlike that of characters like Pablo. Escobar or Charles Manson. For Marcos, her massive 90th birthday celebration may have been one of the last signs of her opulence. That eccentricity became her leitmotif in life was confirmed by herself in 1988, in an interview with the Associated Press. “I was born ostentatious. Someday they'll put my name in the dictionary. They will use 'imeldifico' as a synonym for ostentatious extravagance”. The merits for academics to take it into account seem more than proven.
Tags: imelda marcos|Fashion|PoliticsNewsletter It's rare to live
Stories and essays about culture, intimacy and feminism in your email.
Sign up here!
