The WAG Is Dead. Long Live The WAG
Surprise! Nostalgia for the Nineties and Noughties has resurrected an unexpected old fave, the WAG
You know how we’re having this global mega-nostalgia for the Nineties and Noughties fash-wise? Low-rise denim, silky slip dresses, flatform shoes, butterfly clips, ballet buns, lip gloss, Spice Girls… Well, hello there old friends, it’s taken an interesting turn towards the re-emergence of the WAG. Shriek!
I’ll forgive every one of you who didn’t live through The Great Age Of Wagdom the first time around. I lived every second of it thanks to a professional (LIES - ‘twas entirely personal) interest as a result of celebrity jobs at Heat and Grazia magazines respectively. The acronym WAG could be my very own Roman Empire – as the kids say*. To the uninitiated, its Wives And Girlfriends… of sports stars. Posh Spice? Ultimate WAG. OG WAG. Waggest of WAGs.
Key WAG high point? Her girl gang at the Soccer World Cup in 2006 tottering through the cobbled streets of Baden Baden in micro cut-offs, boobs and Louboutins. It was The Moment.
WAGs in early Noughties were characterized by their hot, talented, mega rich, soccer star partners, but also their dizzying low-slung flared jeans, their slithery vests (spawned an entire fash movement dubbed The Going Out Top - more on this later) and sky high heels. And a blow dry with volume. And face framing bayalage. And a MAC Spice lipliner. And a gradual tan. And a Wonderbra. Good grief, the more I type, the more I remember. Thus, we all aimed to look like this… Not the most sweats-and-Crocs kinda era.
You can see why those of us who lived through it think that Justin Bieber should really try dressing properly when he hits the town with Hailey Bieber. We expected a lot more than grey melange and a cap from our resident A-listers back then.
Of course, to listen to Posh and Becks retell it now via their Netflix documentary Beckham, it was a helluva time for them. And I don’t mean helluva positive either. Its complete madness to watch how they were relentlessly pursued by an army of photographers and how hungry the media-loving public was for bit of spin. In fairness, I really should know – nothing sold weekly magazine copies at this time like a Posh cover. She was so successful for us, even here at the bottom end of Africa, that the photographers couldn’t keep up with the number of new pics we needed to feed an insatiable public every week. We’d re-print the same pics again and again.
Rumour had it – via these same paparazzi - that at this time, Posh had taken to stepping out in almost identical outfits in the hope that it would deter the photographers from cashing in on their images as the pics would look just like the ones they’d already sold. It barely deterred anyone… There was always something new to talk about – from fashion to footie, kids to clothes, hair to hotness. But seeing it as a documentary - told from their point of view - is hard to watch through a 2023 lens It’s impossible to retrofit it to today’s way of thinking where so much of the narrative is around protecting mental health. Anyway… That was Posh – the OG WAG – resurrected into Wagdom via the doccie.
In the wake of Vic Beckham, came Coleen Rooney. In arguably the best nickname of all time, Coleen – wife of Wayne Rooney – is known as Wagatha Christie. I knowwwwww. It’s a twist of comic genius. Here’s why… Back in 2019 stories about Coleen and soccer star Wayne Rooney were constantly being leaked to the press. Stories that Coleen herself knew should only be known to their inner circle of family and friends brcause they were posted to her close friends Insta Stories. She deduced – drumroll – that there was a mole in their sanctum and she set out to prove it.
Did someone say ‘sting operation’?!
Did Coleen go around accusing anyone? Oh hell, no, Agatha. Coleen decided to set a trap. She posted false stories shared to just a single account and waited to see what ended up in print. Bam! The trap snapped shut and it was even more scandalous than anticipated. The snitch wasn’t any distant cousin twice removed with something financial to gain, it was Rebekah Vardy, arch-WAG and wife of soccer star Jamie Vardy. Say it with me: Yoh yoh yoh yoh.
Coleen called her out publicly on Twitter. Rebekah denied it strenuously. Coleen had the screenshots to prove it. Game over. Or was it? Rebekah promptly sued Coleen for libel. This all came to a head when the trial went to court earlier this year. Rebekah lost. And now it’s the subject of a Disney documentary The Real Wagatha Story. Juicy beyond. In fact, so wholesomely juicy that no person famous in 2025 could get it right. Except maybe Taylor Swift.
The WAG (Taylor’s Version)
If The Internet and The Media can agree on one thing it’s that nothing has excited the celebrity zeitgeist more this year than Taylor Swift joining (love) forces with Travis Kelce. Swifties will know all this already, but there’s a reason why Taylor Swift doing something means more to, literally, everyone than just Your Average A-lister.
To give you an idea of the scale of Taylor Swift, her Eras tour which is currently being staged in the US, will have added an almost-$6 billion boost to the American economy. That’s enough, according to Washing Post who did the sums, to send each person in America $20. The friendship bracelets sold on Etsy alone have generated more than $3 million. Her record-smashing tour is set to be the most lucrative concert run in history.
On National Voting Day in the US last month, Taylor urged her younger followers to register to vote and 40 000 of them did so. Overnight. It’s a 72% increase in 18-year-old voters since the last election according to Vote.org.
That’s clout.
So it’s hard to say whether Travis and Taylor is a love match or a business decision or a Democratic wet dream, but in just a few short weeks, Taylor has become Chief WAG. She is at Travis’s games, in the box, with his mom and her gang. And his gang. She’s wearing the supporters shirt, she’s teamed it with the friendship bracelet. She’s invite Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively along.
You can be suspicious about the seemingly public embrace of the new romance when she spent the last six years of her previous relationship in intensely private, no-public-shows monogamy, but everyone is loving This New Era. Not least of which The Internet. Ticket sales for football games to see the Kansas City Chiefs have gone bananas. Shirt sales? Bananas. And Travis Kelce was already sports royalty. He’s not new to this game. Even if you and I have only just heard of him.
If you want to be a WAG in 2023, Taylor has reinvented the era for you… It’s cute and homespun and wholesome. It involves less glamour, champagne and pout but rather team colours, friendship bracelets and a bowl of fries with your besties.
Gucci must be kicking itself that it shot Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny for its new campaign. Coulda woulda shoulda just waited a hot second longer for Taylor and Travis.
My advice? Watch the documentaries rather than the football. It’s way more fun. And if you have to step back into Wag-era fashion, do as the rest of the grown-ups of 2023 are doing and welcome back The Going Out Top to your wardrobe.
Those of you who were going out back in the early Noughties will remember the simple joy of this exchange:
‘What are you wearing tonight?’
‘Jeans and a going-out top.’
Why did we lose faith in our going-out tops? The going-out top was a staple at early 2000s house parties, bars, clubs, red carpet events and beyond. Halters, tubes, bejewelled and bedazzled. It was a top with a li’l something spesh.
I still think it’s the perfect high-low mix, so pull on your fave denims and check out these going-out tops from some of my fave local labels… There’s the sequinned boxy cut from Me & B. I also love the one-shouldered number from Harlow & Summer. There’s the frill-sleeved silk blouse from Mareth Colleen. What about the split-back linen top from Sage & Sunday? Poetry has a sequin cami and a burnt orange taffeta version now in store. All brilliant for festive season parties whether round a dinner table, a cocktail bar, a club or beach braai. Okay, maybe not beach braai. But for everything else! Enjoy!