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 Editorials | July 2005 
Lawn Furniture In The Living Room?
 Will Weissert - Associated Press
| | In this undate file photo Edoardo Chavarin poses in Tijuana wearing one of his t-shirt produced by his NaCo. company. (Photo: AP) |
Do you applaud at the end of a movie? How about when your flight touches down? Does your cell phone ring to "La Cucaracha?" Is the grocery store where you stock up on CDs? Do you have lawn furniture in your living room?
Answers in the affirmative might mean you're "naco" (pronounced NAH-koh) Mexican slang for "tacky" or "low-class." But don't fret. In a culture hypersensitive to social status, two young designers are embracing all things once considered gauche in Mexico – and making a profit by turning class consciousness on its head.
Edoardo Chavarin and Robby Vient produce T-shirts for boutiques across Mexico, California, Arizona, Florida and Illinois with proclamations like "Ser Naco es Chido," or "Being Naco is Cool." Their company name? NaCo., of course.
Retailing for 200 pesos (US$20, euro16.50,) the shirts generated some US$1 million (euro820,000 euros) in sales last year.
"We started out by saying, 'How come everything we wear is in English?,'" said Chavarin, a 29-year-old Tijuana native who founded the company with Vient, a Mexican-American. "Spanish can be funny too."
The two met while studying art and design in Pasadena, California. They often use Spanglish – a mix of Spanish and English that has also been frowned upon by Mexico's elite – to create funny sayings for their shirts.
Naco for Star Wars becomes "Estar Guars." Staff is "Estaff." "The Beatles," "Los Bitles."
"There was a boom, then I didn't think it would last. Fashion changes quickly," said Miguel Angel Charrasco, manager of Klute boutique in Mexico City, which carries NaCo. shirts. "But the shirts keep selling."
A few blocks away is NaCo.'s own outlet, a one-room storefront crammed with shirts, pullovers and stickers in dozens of colors and designs.
"I have to explain them to some people, the ones who aren't from here," saleswoman Marta de la Garza said. "Once they understand, they fall over laughing."
In another shop offering NaCo. designs in downtown Mexico City, 23-year-old architecture student Carmen Martinez was considering buying a blue shirt emblazoned with "Guey," Mexican slang for "Dude," for her boyfriend.
She said it's not uncommon to see twenty-somethings hit nightclubs here wearing US$150 designer jeans, flashy jewelry and a NaCo. shirt.
"Suddenly, naco has status," she said.
There are nearly 120 different shirt designs. One corrupts the NASA logo to spell "NACA," naco's feminine form. Another puts an "N" on the front of Acapulco for a shirt turning the Pacific resort city into a hillbilly paradise.
A drawing of a 1970s TV with a clothes-hanger for an antennae graces one shirt. Another likens an infamous Mexican penitentiary to a five-star bed-and-breakfast.
NaCo. first began mass-producing shirts in 2001. Chavarin, who also works part-time designing CD covers, gave them to friends in the entertainment world as a marketing tool.
Members of the Mexican-American, rap-metal group Molotov wear them on stage. Mexican movie star Diego Luna wore one for a skit during the MTV Latin awards. Colombian rocker Juanes had on a NaCo. shirt that said "Se Habla Espanol," or "Spanish Spoken," when he was a five-time winner during the Latin American Grammy Awards in 2003.
NaCo. does the bulk of its business in Mexico, and relies heavily on nostalgia to drive sales among Mexicans in the United States.
"It's like bringing homemade tortillas," Chavarin said. "Of course they are going to buy it because it reminds them of home."
NaCo. operations director Fernando Garcia said the shirts seized on all things naco because "we really wanted to express Mexican culture just showing what people do all the time."
"If someone wants to wear white socks and dress shoes, that's up to them," Garcia said. "If you want to put neon lights on your Mercedes, OK."
Garcia said all but a few of the shirts featuring phrases are being phased out because they have spawned hundreds of pirate versions sold in Mexican flea markets.
"At first the pirates were helpful. People would see a shirt with a phrase on it and say 'Oh, that's a NaCo. shirt,' even if it wasn't," Garcia said. "But now we have to change our concept to stay ahead of them."
The company plans to introduce a new line with a logo based on an attraction in Tijuana where tourists pose with a donkey painted to look like a zebra.
"It tells a great story," Chavarin said. "Did they think the zebra was more exotic than the burro? Who did they think they were fooling?"
For those who aren't sure if they should be wearing NaCo. clothing, the company Web site includes a 17-question quiz testing visitors' naco-ness. Chavarin said more than 25,000 people have taken it – and that most score in the "Closet Naco" range.
"They are – but they aren't admitting it," he said. "It's something you can't hide." |
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