The story of Filipino first lady Imelda Marcos is as fascinating as it is controversial. Throughout her husband Ferdinand’s decades-long reign over the island nation, the couple’s lavish spending sent their country into debt and poverty.
After she fled into exile with Ferdinand in 1986 following a revolt, her wardrobe made international headlines after it was confiscated. Marcos’ shoe collection reportedly totaled 3,000 pairs, though the final count was around 1,060. Her wardrobe also included 15 mink coats, 508 gowns, 888 handbags and a bulletproof bra. Many of her shoes are on display at the National Museum of the Philippines in Manila.
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Imelda’s Wardrobe
Image Credit: Getty Images An inventory is made of dresses belonging to former First lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, in a cellar under her bedroom at Malacanang Palace, Manila, 3rd March 1986. Former president Ferdinand Marcos and his family fled into exile in Hawaii after he was deposed in February 1986.
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Imelda Marcos’ Furs
Image Credit: Alex Bowie/Getty Images An inventory is made of fur coats belonging to former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, in a cellar under her bedroom at Malacanang Palace, Manila, 3rd March 1986. Former president Ferdinand Marcos and his family fled into exile in Hawaii after he was deposed in February 1986. The mass demonstrations, which came to be known as the People Power Revolution, or EDSA Revolution, toppled Marcos after four days.
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Imelda Marcos’ Wardrobe
Image Credit: Alex Bowie/Getty Images An inventory is made of dresses belonging to former First lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, in a cellar under her bedroom at Malacanang Palace, Manila, 3rd March 1986. Former president Ferdinand Marcos and his family fled into exile in Hawaii after he was deposed in February 1986. The mass demonstrations, which came to be known as the People Power Revolution, or EDSA Revolution, toppled Marcos after four days.
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Stephen J. Solarz Examines Imelda Marcos Dresses
Image Credit: Getty Images Representative Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.) examines a floral dress in a rack of more than two dozen similar dresses belonging to Imelda Marcos in Malacanang Palace, Manila, 3rd March 1986. Mr. Solarz, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, was on a four-day visit to Manila to meet with newly-elected President Corazon Aquino and Jovito Salonga, chairman of the PCGG, to assist in the recovery of Mr. Marcos’s assets in the United States and elsewhere.
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Imelda Marcos Shoes
Image Credit: Getty Images An inventory of luxury handbags and shoes belonging to Imelda Marcos are marked as counted by SVG (SyCip Gorres Velayo & Company) during a professional audit of Imeldas personal clothes and accessories found abandoned in her bedroom at Malacanang Palace, Manila, 3rd March 1986.
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The Malacanang Collection
Image Credit: Getty Images An employee of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) takes an inventory of jewellery belonging to Imelda Marcos found in her bedroom at Malacañang Palace, Manila, 3rd March 1986. Valuable coins, cash and more jewellery already inventoried sit boxed awaiting transport for storage in the vaults of the Central Bank of the Philippines. The jewellery amounting to more than 400 individual pieces was discovered after the former president Ferdinand Marcos and his family fled the Philippines for exile in Hawaii. Known as the Malacanang Collection, the jewellery recovered is one of three collections referred to collectively as the Marcos Jewels or Emelda Jewels, which were recovered by the PCGG after Marcos was deposed in the 1986 People Power Revolution or Edsa Revolution.
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Philippines
Image Credit: Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Imelda Marcos’ shoe collection.
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Imelda Marcos Shoe Collection
Image Credit: AFP via Getty Images Shoes of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos, displayed at the shoe museum in Manila on September 26, 2012. According to press reports, quoting national museum officials, shoes of former first lady Imelda Marcos, being kept at the national museum, which were left behind when the Marcos family fled the country in 1986 during a popular revolt, have been damaged by termites, and floods.
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Marcos Shoe Collection
Image Credit: Getty Images An inventory is made of shoes belonging to former First lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, in a cellar under her bedroom at Malacanang Palace, Manila, 3rd March 1986. Former president Ferdinand Marcos and his family fled into exile in Hawaii after he was deposed in February 1986.
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Former Philipnes first lady Imelda Marcos (2L) acc
Image Credit: AFP via Getty Images Former Philipnes first lady Imelda Marcos (2L) accompanied by tourism official Marides Fernando (L), looks at her famous shoe collection Feb. 16, 2001 after formally opening the suburban Marikina Shoe Museum. The first shoe museum in the country houses part of Imelda’s extravagant collection of several thousand pairs of shoes she left behind at the Malacanang palace on Feb. 25, 1986 when she and former president Ferndinand Marcos fled for exile in Hawaii following a military-backed people power revolt.