Shoes.

There is a reason that Imelda Marcos had all of those shoes. In Manila, there are 10 shoe stores for every one store of any other kind. I've never seen so many pairs of shoes in one place. Ever. Not even in Nordstrom's.

Manila is full of fabric stores

Anyone in the US knows that fabric stores are now few and far between. I spent the morning walking around in a shopping mall in Makati City, Manila (Glorietta 1 through 5) and found fabric store after fabric store. All of them were full of people buying fabric - not quilting fabric, mind you, but real sewing fabric.

I was with friends and didn't go into any of them except the one pictured here. The fabrics were so lovely and the dresses so elaborate that I went in to ask if I might take a photo of the front of the shop.