Thursday, September 6, 2012

  Largest collection of shoe-related items: Darlene Flynn sets world record (VIDEO)

ROMOLAND, CA, USA -- Darlene Flynn, 57, from Romoland, California, otherwise known as 'The Shoe Lady', or 'Queen of Sole', has amassed a staggering 16,400 pieces of shoes and shoe-shaped objects, beating her own world record for the largest collection of shoe-related items, which is worth a whopping 316,000 pounds (about $500,000), according to the World Record Academy: www.worldrecordacademy.com/.

  Photo: "Queen of Shoes" Darlene Flynn, who own the World's Largest Collection of Shoe-Related Items.
( enlarge photo )

The Guinness world record for the largest collection of soaps; it belongs to Carol Vaughan (UK) who has collected 1,331 individual bars.

Guinness World Records also recognized the world record for the Largest collection of shoe horns, set by Martien Tuithof (Netherlands), who has a collection of 1,594 shoehorns. Martien's collection is housed in the Zijper museum, Schagerbrug, The Netherlands.

  Darlene Flynn, dubbed as the Shoe Lady, numbers shoe-shaped furniture, clothes, teapots and phones among her haul.

  She even has a cowboy boot toilet brush holder and a replica of Cinderella's glass slipper.

  Having originally set the world record in 2006 with 7,765 items, Flynn, 57, has now doubled her collection in size and it is worth a whopping 316,000 pounds (about $500,000), The Sun reported.

  Flynn said: "I don't know why it had to be shoes. I just love them and it kind of got out of control."

  Her footwear-fetish began after she got divorced in 2001 and now it takes her two weeks to remove every item from their display cabinet and set them out.