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Shmangle - the origin and culture of an alternative lifestyle brand
Shmangle is an alternative lifestyle brand founded in London in 2002. The word “Shmangle” was used to describe the company’s flagship product, a dual-purpose festival blanket that could be sat on like a picnic blanket, or worn like a cloak. The Shmangle Blanket (see www.shmangle.com) became an iconic "must-have" for festival goers throughout the early 2000's and remains a popular item today.
Where does the name come from?
“Shmangled” is a colloquial term that came into common use among young party-goers in the late 1990's and early 2000's, and describes the feeling of being under the influence of ecstasy. Psychedelic parties (also referred in the early days as “raves"), often last for 24-hours or longer, with revellers not sleeping or resting, and the state of being physically exhausted but deeply happy was referred to as "feeling shmangled".
Possibly a portmanteau of "smashed" and "mangled", the word's meaning extended to evoke the sense of euphoria that users of ecstasy experience towards their friends and shared community. Also used within this community to describe intense intimacy and sexual pleasure ("Let's get shmangled together").
As this generation grew into their late twenties and thirties, they brought the word with them, a tribal reference to their shared history. In this time, the meaning morphed away from it’s previously purely hedonistic sense to denote a positive feeling of intense affection and warmth. This was once described as follows:
"It's the feeling you get, waiting in the crowded arrival hall of an airport to meet a lover or loved-one that you have been separated from...the sudden rush of unrestrained joy and excitement that comes when you see each other across the room, the intense emotion that is vested in that first, long embrace as you greet each other. It’s the exact opposite of the lonely yearning you feel when you are apart - after all this time of thinking about and longing for this moment, you now feel the deep sense of peace and total trust that comes from opening up, and being opened up to, creating a shared bubble of intimate, personal space that is oblivious to everything else around it. In that moment, you are wrapped in pure bliss. It’s the safest, happiest place in the world."
Today the company makes no reference to the words' dubious origins and it's association with hedonistic over-indulgence. However, it seems there is a nostalgia in its culture and a desire to rekindle the exuberant spirit of warm goodwill and affection that is felt as the legacy of the early psychedelic party scene by those who experienced it.
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