YOMANGO
Political activism can intersect with fashion in many
ways. One of these ways is exemplified by the Spanish
collective Las Agencias, ”The Agencies”. Las Agencias
is an informally structured collective of artists and
activists based primarily in Barcelona that has run
several projects in the counter-culture style. They
have also worked with undertakings somehow con-
nected to the fashion world, creating protective
clothing for public protests, Pret-a-revolter, and run-
ning poster and “subvertising” campaigns, subvert-
ing advertising or billboards. However, their project
YOMANGO is the most well known and widely
spread of their ideas.
YOMANGO is a counter-lifestyle movement or an-
archistic practice critically commenting on consum-
er culture and the role of consumption in contempo-
rary society. The name is a fusion of the clothing
company Mango creating the word in Spanish slang
for “I steal”. According to the group, YOMANGO,
promoting civil disobedience through tactics such as
stealing, is more of a brand and lifestyle than an or-
ganized movement. They state that;
Like all other major brand names, it is not so much
about selling concrete stuff but more about promot-
ing a lifestyle. In this case, the YOMANGO lifestyle
consists of shoplifting as a form of social disobedi-
ence and direct action against multinational corpo-
rations. (Smith & Topham, 36)It is a counter-lifestyle exploding the borders of ac-
cepted behaviour with the aim of subverting the
multinational corporations.
The de-purchasing of consumer goods is promoted
by YOMANGO as a “style” that goes beyond one sea-
son and has more to do with social engineering than
fashion design. [...] The hole left by tearing the locks
off becomes a logo in its own right, a symbol of
coherence to YOMANGO values. (Smith & Topham,
36)Their freely distributed methods of shoplifting tech-
niques are available on the internet and can be seen
as a playful comment on how it is to engage in our
contemporary systems of meaning. YOMANGO is
not a movement in a traditional sense. Neither are
they a philosophy to ”follow”. It is a spontaneous
happening that can occur at any place by anybody. It
is an act of self-fulfilment, creativity and sharing. In
a world where the Descartian “I think therefore I
am” is replaced by the “I consume therefore I am” it
should be a basic human right to consume, even for
those without the economic assets. In this light,
consumption is seen an elementary means for exist-
ence. In this situation of social vulnerability YO-
MANGO distributes both methods and accessories
to assist, but more so as social strategies than as
products.
In the rhetoric of YOMANGO they see themselves
primarily as liberators:YOMANGO liberates objects and liberates your
desire. It liberates your desire which is trapped
within objects which are trapped inside large shop-
ping malls, the same place where yourself are trapped.
YOMANGO is a pact between co-prisoners.
(YOMANGO 2004: 152)The impetus of their method comes not from op-
position or from rejecting the mechanisms of con-
sumerism but instead they celebrate consumerism,
but through stealing. They propose a carnival of de-
sire rather than one of strict fashion asceticism.Dare to desire: YOMANGO is your style: risky, inno-
vative. It is the articulate proliferation of creative
gestures. YOMANGO is not about theft, its about
magic, about the liberation of desire and intelligence
crystallized in the ”things” offered for sale. If
YOMANGO has a politics, it is the politics of happi-
ness, of putting the body first. Be happy, insultingly
happy. YOMANGO: feel pretty! (YOMANGO 2006)YOMANGO is in this sense engaging a central para-
dox of consumerism, similar to the one discussed in
relation to fan fiction. It opposes a system by bend-
ing its power, but at the same time is devoted to it. It
uses a system of transformation, as is material cul-
ture, and in itself transforms it, or even transmutates
it and changes it at a deeper level than the surface.
In itself the group is acting as a force or a line of
practice more than an entity or independent actor. It
is not an oppositional dialectic force, not neglecting
or fighting the system in a traditional way, by oppos-
ing it or “revealing” its perverse logics. It is neither
attacking the cause nor the effect. Instead YOMAN-
GO is bending and modulating the intensities that
energize the system and liberating them and their
incarnations in commodities.
Even though their anarchistic discourse and many
facetted activism proposes an opposition to capital-
ism, paradoxically they are praising it. The co-pris-