• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.66 no.4
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• pp.94-110
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to delve into the identity of the swag style which has diversified into various forms by exploring the phenomenon, formative characteristics and the internal values of the swag style in modern fashioin. This study discusses the concept and the socio-cultural meanings of swag from the perspective of Jean Baudrillard's hyper-reality, and a form of existence. The classifies the swag fashion styles into parody, hip hop and collage-type mix-and-match. Expressive characteristics of the swag look in modern fashion are as follows. First, the swag look utilizes the parody technique. In the mid-2000s, the look parodied brand logos as a form of self-mocking and active self-derision toward cheap imitations. Second, the swag look borrows from the expressive factors of the hip-hop style. Born as a sub-culture based on music, hip-hop has become a way of life, as its nature became multi-cultural and trans-cultural while its fashion style gained popularity globally after the 1980s. Third, the swag look barrows from the pop-type collage form as it mixes-and-matches costume items based on the expressive characteristics of hip hop, and this can be seen through items being used in new, non-formative and free styles. Comic aesthetics is revealed in parodied expression, hip-hop factors and collage-style mix-and-match. Swag as a hyper-reality manifests itself in various natures: humorous nature, negative nature and deconstructive nature through reflection and re-enactment of reality, transmutation and distortion of reality, and absence of reality respectively. However, it does not have a binding nature, which is the norm for subcultures. This characteristic, in combination with it having internal lightness, strong meaning of communication, and a sharing of self-contentment, distinguishes itself from the general meanings of existing parody fashion, hip-hop fashion and collage fashion.