WATCH OUT, ROSMAH: Imelda Marcos shoes ruined by termites, neglect

WATCH OUT, ROSMAH: 

Imelda Marcos shoes 

ruined by termites, neglect

Termites, storms and neglect have damaged

 part

 of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos’ l

egendary stash of shoes and other vanity

possessions, left behind after she and her

dictator husband were driven into US exile by a

1986 popular revolt.

Her massive shoe
collection, including
top US and European
brands, astounded the
world and became a
 symbol of excess in
the Southeast Asian nation,
where many still walked barefoot out of abject poverty.
Imelda was not immediately available for comment.
Since her disgrace, she has managed to claw her
way back to the House of Representatives.
In Southeast Asia, Imelda's spending spree has
been somewhat eclipsed by Rosmah Mansor,
the wife of the Malaysian prime minister,
but the former Filipino First Lady is still the
stuff of legends and often used as a benchmark
for the profligacy of the politically rich and powerful.
150 cartons
According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer,
Hundreds of pieces of late strongman
Ferdinand Marcos’ clothing, including the formal
native see-through Barong shirts he wore during
his two-decade rule, have also begun to gather mold
and fray after being stored for years without
protection at the presidential palace and later
at Manila’s National Museum, officials told T
he Associated Press on Sunday.
The Marcoses fled the Philippines at the
 climax of the army-backed “people power”
revolt, which became a harbinger of change
in authoritarian regimes worldwide.
Ferdinand Marcos died in exile in
Hawaii in 1989 and his widow and children
returned home years later.
They left behind staggering amounts of
 personal belongings, clothes and art
objects at the palace, including at least
1,220 pairs of Imelda Marcos’ shoes.

More than 150 carton boxes of clothes,
dress accessories and shoes of the
Marcoses were transferred to the
National Museum for safekeeping
two years ago after termites,
humidity and mold threatened
the apparel at the riverside palace.
There they deteriorated further as
the fragile boxes were abandoned
in a padlocked museum hall that
had no facilities to protect such r
elics and that was inundated by
 tropical storm rains last month
due to a gushing leak in the ceiling,
museum officials said.

Mementos with history
Museum staffers, who were not aware
the boxes contained precious mementoes
 from the Marcoses, opened the hall on
 the fourth floor of the building after noticing
water pouring out from under the door.
They were shocked to see Marcos’ shoes
and gowns when they opened the wet boxes,
officials said.
Workers hurriedly moved the boxes to a dry
room and some were later brought to a
museum laboratory, where a small team
of curators scrambled to assess the extent
of the damage, a process that may take
months given the huge volume of the apparel.
 Some items have obviously been damaged
by termites and mold beyond repair, according
to museum curator Orlando Abinion,
who is heading the effort.
“We’re doing a conservation rescue,
” AP reported Abinion as saying.
“There was termite infestation and mold
in past years, and these were aggravated
by last month’s storm.”
“It’s unfortunate because Imelda may
have worn some of these clothes in
major official events and as such have
an important place in our history,” he said.
Mess
According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer,
two AP journalists saw a badly tattered box
at the museum with damaged and soiled
leather bags and designer shoes of Imelda
Marcos’ bulging out. Termites damaged the
heel and sole of a white Pierre Cardin shoe.
Other shoes had been warped out of shape
or messed by stains.
About 100 of Ferdinand Marcos’ Barong shirts
 were squeezed tight into another box, some
still attached to plastic hangers. A white Barong
shirt on top, with the colorful presidential seal
emblazoned on its pocket, looked disheveled
with reddish stains and a sleeve nearly torn off.
- Agencies/Philippine Daily Inquirer/Malaysia Chronicle/

~post & copy by Admin

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