King’s Bunker, host of King’s College’s bohemian parties and Ents, recently witnessed a revival of corny late-millennial culture in a March event simply named ‘#SWAG’.

Ten years after the initial surge of Tumblr, excessive hashtag use, and MTV, has the pressure in 2024 to have a Pinterest-worthy wardrobe and a perfectly curated Instagram feed strayed too far from our roots? Are the students enthusiastically donning their neon baseball caps and high-top converse at King’s infamously cool Ents scene doing so ironically, or just nostalgic for a childhood of no responsibilities and the cultural freedom to be cringe?

A decade after the peak of this wave of internet culture, I interviewed some of the ‘kool kids’ to see how #swag they were in 2014. When asked to define ‘swag’, most of the people I spoke with struggled to come up with a concrete definition. Instead, I received a list of items, with space buns, galaxy-tide tees, and iPod shuffle being some of the popular ones. These answers begged the question of whether this gauche stylistic and cultural period is genuinely part of our pre-teen memories, or rather a collective reimagination of Tumblr archives created by cooler older cousins.

“[I had] minus-swag,” says Chloe Jacob, “Striped leggings and ballet pumps were what I was wearing in 2014.”

Stripes and pumps seemed to be some solid wardrobe staples in 2014. Also claiming to be “not swag at all back then,” Iz Dyson was rocking these with her sister, alongside wedge heels, tiny skirts and punky jewellery.

“Realistically I was just wearing clothes I already owned”

Still rocking those striped leggings and a tiny skirt, Iz turned up at King’s Bunker almost exactly how she’d dressed then. On the whole experience of the swag-themed night, Iz described it to be “pretty close in terms of our own ideas of ‘swag’, and realistically I was just wearing clothes I already owned.” In particular, she points out that “the sea of backwards caps was mad.”

Among that sea of backwards caps stood Arif Shahrudin, a recent graduate from the Cambridge School of Visual & Performing Arts (CSVPA). With his nerdy glasses and iconic digital camera, Arif was captured on camera trying to chronicle his friend’s retro vibes.

Despite being a fashion branding student, Arif also claims to be “not swag at all back then.” To him, “‘swag’ was just another definition of cool, at the time at least.”

That being said, Arif still found the #SWAG-themed party a great one. “King’s Bunker swag theme was so fun because it was a theme that Cambridge students can actually respect…Dressing ‘swaggy’ was quite nostalgic through the sense of purposefully dressing bad, like the skinny jeans and swoop hair.”

“Memories are fallible and nostalgia is fluid”

Defending her self-proclaimed lack of chicness, Chloe adds, “To be fair, I was like nine.” Indeed, that is a valid defence. Around half of Gen-Z probably wouldn’t have a distinct recollection of the 2014 internet culture, as they would’ve only been around ten years old or so.

This seems particularly the case when I ask people for some proof of their swagness, or lack thereof. “I can’t find anything from 2014, I didn’t have a phone back then,” says Arif. “I think to truly live the 2014 experience we would need to have people who were actually living it,” Iz agrees.

In some way, though, this reconstruction of ‘swag’ allows individuals to imbue new life into the trend.

Memories are fallible and nostalgia is fluid. Similar to many Internet trends and subcultures, its latter renditions and reinterpretations are what make them unique. Rather than criticising the lack of authenticity in experiencing the swag era at the time, the night was a great opportunity for everyone to showcase their own interpretation of what it meant to be swag then and now. “So we may dance in the raptures of swag as an ageless ensemble,” as Iz says.

While skinny jeans and meme-adjacent tees still trigger some cringe reactions from most Gen-Z, I think everyone ‘swagged’ that night, whatever that means. With the comeback of skinny jeans looking increasingly true, swag seems to be also going through a new rendition and reinterpretation. As with many other trends and subcultures, they are not bound by age and time, but rather regenerates with each generation’s imagination.