I've touched a bit on shoes with my dad's "shoe malfunction" story there in my first part of the "pursuit of beauty" post, and I honestly don't know where I am going with this! But I thought I'd blog tonight about how I feel about my fellow Filipina, Imelda Marcos, who is notorious for her sizable shoe collection. I don't think she's someone to be proud of, I just find her collection of over 3,000 shoes (hate her!) to be ostentatious - tangible, eye-candy of an evidence of her frivolous self-indulgence. Well, she defends herself by claiming that they were given to her as gifts. Painfully faultless samples (sob!) given to her by shoemakers in Marikina - say what??? M-A-R-I-K-I-N-A - it's a city in the Philippines also known as the country's Shoe Capital and apparently by extension, of Asia as well, owing to it's notable shoe industry. I guess, it could be true that she accumulated that many shoesies that way, after all her husband did serve as president/dicator for an overly draaaawwwwnnnn-outttt (reminiscent of the very recent epic John Isner-Nicolas Mahut Wimbledon match) twenty somewhat years. Shall we do the math? Let's just say, that exactly a dozen shoemakers gave her one sample each, every single month for twenty years - that would come up to 2,880 pairs of shoes, just a little over a hundred shy of 3,000!!!! I just wonder whether they were offered up to her nestled on red satin pillows out of the goodness of their hearts, or simply in sucking up leech-style, or perhaps with an ulterior motive of getting a tax break (no, corruption doesn't exist in the Philippines, naahh!!), or maybe in an attempt to appease her wrath after she had threatened to have her hubby Ferdi, annihilate them all if they didn't deliver!!! And yet, how come I don't believe it for two seconds when she says that her entire collection consists solely of gifts. If anything, I believe that receiving those samples in the beginning may have whet her appetite for shoes which later developed into a voracious and insatiable hankering for shoes, shoes and more SHOES over time! Don't tell me she doesn't own any sexy patent-leather Prada pumps (drooling), some funky playful Louboutin platforms, a couple of magnificent diamond (not rhinestone!) encrusted strappy Blahnik stilletos (I can't take it!!!) or a few dainty gaily-bowed Choo kitten heel :) numbers that she had personally purchased with her infamously ill-gotten millions, that's impossible, that just can't be! She's gotta have a few of those - some few dozens of them - and I bet you they are exactly what make up the rest of the 3,000 and more! Apparently, Imelda's shoes are now on display or maybe I should say, enshrined at the Shoe Museum of Marikina...now that I've got to see. I promise to plan to set off on a pilgrimage to this shoe Mecca with Maya the very next time I go home, or maybe I'll just plotthe heist of the century.... hmmm,
we'll see...Oh, did I say that out loud???!!! (Candice, care to join me? Stella and Maya can totally act as decoys!!!)
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