(Imelda Marcos)
Regardless of what you think of Imelda Marcos politics, the lady was chic during her glory days. She was also a serious shopaholic known for having 3000 pairs of shoes while her husband, President Ferdinand Marcos delivered a strong arm authoritative state with political repression to the people of Philippines from 1959 to 1965. She is considered the corrupt fashionista, a textbook example of extravagance-meets-exploitation.
(Imelda Marcos)
David Byrne worked on a little project called “Here Lies Love” with a collection of 6 videos — One of the videos is a song by Santigold called “Please Don’t” that has gorgeous archival footage. The concept is interesting. It centers around a political tactic which she referred to as her “Handbag Diplomacy”.
(Imelda Marcos with deceased husband ex-President Ferdinand Marcos)
Most of the lyrics on this song are taken from quotes of the first lady, including the phrase she spoke,”please don’t”. She liked to sway world leaders with her charm, so she would sometimes bypass her hubby President, grab her handbag, hop a plane, and take major meetings with world leaders on her own to affect world policies (thus the term “Handbag Diplomacy”). The crazy thing is that sometimes, it worked!
(Taking Meetings with the Big Boys)
David Byrne writes on his site: “There was, for example, an Islamic-backed insurgency rising in the south of the Philippine archipelago, and she thought that a leader in that part of the world, Qaddafi in this case, might help pull the plug on that support if he saw things her way. Apparently he did – the funding stopped and the insurrection lost momentum. She later described him as a pushover, a mama’s boy.”
View the new video here:
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